A central task for China on her 55th birthday

wchao37  Updated: 2004-10-09 09:09

A cross-strait war seems probable if not imminent at this time.

From across the effulgent flower-bedecked Tiananmen Square, unmistakable rumblings of distant drums and bugles are already faintly audible against a backdrop of red banners fluttering in Beijing's morning breeze.

Further to the south on China's eastern seaboard, even as they are enjoying the national holiday festivities, Shanghai's merrymaking residents are restive with the knowledge that their city is targeted by sophisticated U.S.-missiles acquired by the barefaced Taidus.

The situation can be likened to the October, 1962 'Cuban Missile Crisis,' although exactitude in comparison is impossible because Taiwan is a part of China while Cuba had never been part of America -- a beguiling fact which makes these U.S.-originated missiles that much more poignant as emblems of provocative opprobrium.

In both cases involving alien missiles, the common thread is a mainland government threatened with massive destruction by the inhabitants of an island with weapons supplied by an ill-wishing third party.

If U.S. President JFK (Kennedy) Jr. was justified in bringing America to the brink of nuclear confrontation forty-two years ago on account of Soviet missiles emplaced in an offshore island over which it had no legal jurisdiction whatsoever (both de facto and de jure), isn't it that much more justifiable for China to regard the presence of foreign anti-radiation missiles on Taiwan (over which China does have de jure jurisdiction) singularly unacceptable?

Therefore, if the upcoming November election does bring forth a new Democratic president in the U.S., wouldn't it make perfect sense for the new JFK (Kerry) administration to follow the logic of the namesake president and withdraw such weapons sales to Taiwan to obviate the dangers of a cross-strait war involving Uncle Sam?

To be sure, the gravity of the situation is manifest: barely a few days after the conclusion of the Fourth Plenum of the Sixteenth Congress, President Hu Jintao has already ordered his generals to be fully prepared for armed struggles.

The party, the army and the people are all responding to the cross-strait crisis with quiet courage and determination.

Let no nation on earth underestimate our resolve. If push comes to shove we will certainly not stand idly by in catatonic stupor and ignominiously let Taiwan drift away from the motherland.

Clearly a military response can only be our last resort in rooting out the Taidu pestilence, but not to give a clear signal now of our readiness to use force would be even more unthinkable -- since the Pentagon will certainly take that as a sign of weakness and continue its relentless sale of advanced offensive weapons to the Taidus, making sacrifices of our fighting men all the greater in the future.

Defending one's self-interest is always the highest guiding principle of a sovereign nation until the day that a world government can truly become a viable alternative. Such a government will eventually come to pass in a few hundred years not as a result of external coercive pressure from unilateralist hegemons, but as the result of the world's people coming together to appraise the ramifications of a paradigm shift in the international political landscape in order to ensure the survival of our species.

The initial stirrings of these aspirations are embodied in the stated principles of the United Nations. The only thing we need to do is to truly put such principles into practice. Ours being an increasingly interconnected global village, how we actually react to the encroachment of the hegemon in our part of the world will of course have long-term global repercussions.

The sale of advanced offensive weapons to the Taidus by the sweet-talking hegemon who professes to be our 'friend' at a time of our transition in supreme command is obviously aimed at testing the mettle of our new leaders. It is comparable to the proverbial intrusion of the camel's nose into the hapless traveler's tent.

Presently the greatest threat we face is rampant international lawlessness by hegemons large and small, with transgressors believing that past laws of engagement no longer apply to them and that their "might" confers upon them special "rights" to maim and kill their victims at will with unconscionable pretenses.

Needless to say, our inaction at this juncture would be tantamount to tolerating national insecurity either through willful negligence or insouciance, and such inaction will render re-unification that much more difficult to achieve in the future --- not to mention that it will also have a negative impact on the prospects of our ability to rein in future governments hijacked by avaricious special-interest groups with insatiable appetites for fossil-based fuels.

There are those who say that war with such a monstrosity should be postponed into the future when our military strength has increased further.

This is baloney --- since while we are increasing our military sophistication the hegemons are improving theirs even faster due to the presence of their well-ensconced military-industrial complex. Perpetual delay on our part can only be a fatal error.

As an example, I quote the case of the epic Battle of Ju Lu in 207 B.C. between General Xiang Yu and the Qin army as recorded in Grand Historian Si Ma-qian's "Si Ji" or "Compiled Historical Records" written during Emperor Han Wu Di's reign (140-87 B.C.).

Xiang was admonished by his superior commander "Qing Zi Guan Jun" not to launch an attack on the almighty Qin infantry, and that they should 'wait it out until the enemy is weakened by fighting other rebel armies' (chen qi bi) before they themselves would engage the enemy.

Xiang retorted that even though the Qin infantry had been quite formidable under the First Emperor (the one fictitiously depicted in Zhang Yimou's film "Hero") fourteen years before in 221 B.C., the political situation had changed in the interim and that it was important to seize the opportune moment to strike at the heart of the enemy when the morale of his troops had not been irreparably damaged by incessant delays..

He further argued that if the Qin troops were allowed to regroup it would be much more difficult to attack them later, and that the other rebel armies gathered at Ju Lu (nowadays Pingxiang, Hebei Province) were nothing but a motley mob scared out of their wits upon witnessing actual combat with the Qin enemy, who only fourteen years earlier had managed to pummel armies from the six other nations in the Warring States period to smithereens.

Thereupon General Xiang took the decision to forcibly take over leadership of the battalions from "Qing Zi Guan Jun," after which he burned his boats and allowed his troops to carry only three days' ration before going into battle unsupported by the other rebel armies.

Aroused by his decisiveness, his army became imbued with an invincible spirit, and their subsequent smashing victory over Qin ('pitting one C'hu against ten Qin soldiers' according to Si Maqian's account of the battle) established Xiang Yu as the uncontestable commander of all rebel forces.

Although Xiang Yu himself did not become the emperor of a new dynasty, the battle at Ju Lu was the pivotal event which made Han Dynasty's four-hundred year reign possible.

If Xiang Yu hadn't been decisive at Ju Lu, China's history would have taken a different turn given General Xiang romantic inclinations. One momentous decision to strike at the propitious moment made all the difference.

Now forward twenty-two centuries to 2004.

At this time the misguided political agenda of a lone superpower has now alienated the majority of the world's peoples and nations. Its onus of hubris has become glaringly incongruous to the aspirations of the overwhelming majority of the earth's inhabitants for peace and economic advancement.

These are noble aspirations and we should not let these people down.

The window of opportunity for action is only transient, and as General Xiang put it so aptly before the battle of Ju Lu, any inopportune delay will invite disaster, making it extremely difficult for China to break out of the First Island Chain in the Pacific, let alone achieving 'Peaceful Rise' in this century.

Allow me at this time to quote another example for this very important concept of "inopportune delay."

In 1815 Napoleon wasted six precious hours for the ground to dry at Waterloo and that delay gave the Prussians enough time to reach the battlefield before the French could breach Wellington's position, thus ensuring Anglo-Prussian victory through a two-front battle.

That war also decided the fate of Europe and the world. In the least, had Napoleon succeeded, you and I would most likely be writing French and not English in this forum.

Presently, the cross-strait situation looks so explosive that it can deteriorate quickly in the blink of an eye. Before any battle is enjoined, however, it must be impressed upon the nonchalant hegemons that we are determined to retrieve the island that is rightfully ours, that we inveigh against their hypocrisy when our Third World friends are being castigated as 'evil' and threatened with military attack for similar weapons sales to sovereign states.

It is time to tell the hegemon one last time: no more sales of high-tech offensive weapons to the Taidu clique. Period.

Rest assured that in the event of an eyeball-to-eyeball staredown confrontation, China will not be the first one to blink.

The above content represents the view of the author only.

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