Small Wars Journal

05/28/2020 News & Commentary – National Security 

Thu, 05/28/2020 - 2:51pm

News & commentary by Dave Maxwell. Edited and published by Ahyoung Shin.

1. Last chance for US to counter China's rise

2. U.S. Officially Declares That Hong Kong Is No Longer Autonomous

3.  Pompeo tells Congress Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China

4. Facebook Executives Shut Down Efforts to Make the Site Less Divisive

5. Opinion | The Trump administration's China policies are ironically bolstering Beijing

6. President Trump expected to sign executive order about social media on Thursday

7. Revoking Hong Kong's special status is Trump's 'nuclear option' that could trigger irrevocable U.S.-China split, analysts warn

8. Gordon Chang: China's Economy Is In Deep Trouble

9. China's Largest Base Has Replicas Of Taiwan's Presidential Building, Eiffel Tower

10. Coronavirus Hasn't Killed the Global Balance of Power

11. Cyber security review may spell end for Huawei 5G deal

12. The Future of the Dollar: U.S. Financial Power Depends on Washington, Not Beijing

13. Coronavirus: The human cost of virus misinformation

14. PRC Wages Psychological Warfare Against the U.S. Military

15. Jared Diamond: lessons from a pandemic

16. Air Force Weaponizing Cargo Planes For All-Domain Ops: 'Bomb Bay In A Box'

17. Communist China's imperialist dreams of dividing the world

18. A Foreign General Is Helping to Lead US Army Europe. Other Commands Should Take Heed

19. Don Bendell: Green Berets, 'What were they, daddy?'

 

1. Last chance for US to counter China's rise

asiatimes.com · by Grant Newsham · May 27, 2020

Grant Newsham makes this key point. Quote: "Beijing may indeed find itself in a stronger position, better able than ever to intimidate its neighbors and control more territory. But its intimidation tactics might finally coalesce serious opposition to its efforts to dominate the Asia-Pacific region.”

2.  U.S. Officially Declares That Hong Kong Is No Longer Autonomous

WSJ · by Jessica Donati · Updated May 27, 2020 6:57 pm ET 

We are at the proverbial inflection point with US-China relations.  I think this is a historic decision and action.  It will be interesting to map out the second and third order effects of this decision.  I think the assessment is correct.   China's actions mean Hong Kong no longer has autonomy and therefore our rules that treat it as autonomous are no longer valid.  

3.  Pompeo tells Congress Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China

Axios · by Zachary Basu

A useful initial summary of this important action.

4. Facebook Executives Shut Down Efforts to Make the Site Less Divisive

WSJ · by Jeff Horwitz and Deepa Seetharaman · May 26, 2020 11:38 am ET

It is a brave new world with social media.  Does social media cause the divisiveness in out country?  It is merely a platform?  Is there a technical or process solution to this problem?  Are we any more divided than in the past?  Do social media platforms merely amplify, expose,  and project the human biases (and as Arthur Brooks describes the contempt that is so prevalent in politics and culture expressed through social media.  It is not always the Russians and Chinese who are exploit social media to cause this divisiveness.  It is our own political parties and political groups who support their parties.  Although this excerpt from our National Security Strategy is focused on foreign influence, e.g., the Russians, it applied to our domestic groups who are using the same tactic, techniques, and procedures, as the Russians.  We would all do well to heed these words of President Trump (since he signed the NSS in 2017 these must be his words - though I know they were written by Nadia Schadlow and HR McMaster).  We need to start working on making our democracy resilient. 

5. Opinion | The Trump administration's China policies are ironically bolstering Beijing

The Washington Post · by John Pomfret · May 27, 2020 

This must be considered a contrarian view but he does offer some important recommendations on how to counter China.  Mr. Pomfret makes the key point here: "For more than 50 years, U.S. presidential administrations have been key to China's rise"

These words from our National Security Strategy explain the failed theory upon which our decades of policy was based.  This is the threat our NSS says we face.

6. President Trump expected to sign executive order about social media on Thursday

cnet.com · by Queenie Wong

This is going to be something. I wonder how this will pay out in Congress and the Courts.

7. Revoking Hong Kong's special status is Trump's 'nuclear option' that could trigger irrevocable U.S.-China split, analysts warn

marketwatch.com · by Chris Matthews

Here is the dire warning on what could happen.  Think about this: "More than 300 U.S. companies have regional headquarters in Hong Kong, according to a tally by Veda Partners, including 3M Co. MMM, +3.99%, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -0.47%, Facebook Inc. FB, -1.31%, Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +0.13% and Johnson & Johnson JNJ, +0.22%, to name a few."

8. Gordon Chang: China's Economy Is In Deep Trouble

nationalinterest.org · by Gordon G. Chang

Assuming Gordon is correct, what does this mean for CCP rule if the economy performs as badly as assessed?  Will this lead to domestic instability.

9. China's Largest Base Has Replicas Of Taiwan's Presidential Building, Eiffel Tower

thedrive.com · by Joseph Trevithick · May 27, 2020

I had to  include this because of the target of the Taiwanese Presidential Building. It reminds me the Chinese are similar to their north Korean. ally who built a replica of the South Korea Blue House for training. I do not ever recall US forces building such target complexes for national leadership targets in their palaces and presidential building.

From the imagery the training areas and target complexes look quite impressive. The author compares it to Ft Irwin and our National Training Center.  I would imagine many military forces would like to have facilities as large as these.  But I guess like everything else China does they "borrowed" it from somewhere else.  As one my students at the War College said the Chinese philosophy for R&D is steal to leap ahead.  I guess this applies to training development as well -copy and steal.

10. Coronavirus Hasn't Killed the Global Balance of Power

bloomberg.com · by Hal Brands

I think the last few months have been a wake-up call for many people. Who would have thought the coronavirus crisis would have accelerated the exposure of CCP strategy? Or was it as Professor brands says that we were just not paying attention as their strategy has long been quite transparent. 

11. Cyber security review may spell end for Huawei 5G deal

The Guardian · by Dan Sabbagh · May 24, 2020

I would say maybe Huawei would go out of business if enough of these deals are scuttled because of security concerns.  But the CCP will not allow that to happen.

12. The Future of the Dollar: U.S. Financial Power Depends on Washington, Not Beijing

Foreign Affairs · May 19, 2020

The dollar as the reserve currency is a critical national security issue.

13. Coronavirus: The human cost of virus misinformation

bbc.com · by Marianna Spring

This is a useful and important read. I see so much misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories on social media.  We really do need to defend ourselves against this. But we are so vulnerable to it especially when it comports with our world view as it did for some in this story.

14. PRC Wages Psychological Warfare Against the U.S. Military

realcleardefense.com · by Aaron Jensen

Why not?  I would expect nothing less.  Psychological warfare is after all one of China's three warfares (legal warfare and media/public opinion warfare as well)

15. Jared Diamond: lessons from a pandemic

Financial Times · by Jared Diamond · May 28, 2020

16. Air Force Weaponizing Cargo Planes For All-Domain Ops: 'Bomb Bay In A Box'

breakingdefense.com · by Theresa Hitchens

Pretty cool capability.  I wonder if the air crews will be nicknaming the "CLEAVER" the "beaver" though they may be too young to know the meaning.

17. Communist China's imperialist dreams of dividing the world

washingtontimes.com · by Clifford D. May

I think it is interesting in the new White House Approach to China strategy it specifically calls out One Belt One Road (OBOR)  (rather than uses the latest Chinese incarnation of the term, BRI which I understand the Chinese do not like to use because it reinforces exactly what Cliff is discussing here). An important conclusion here: Quote: "Imperialism, according to Lenin, involves "the division of the world." It should now be obvious that China's Communist rulers intend to divide the world to their economic and political benefit, and the detriment of pretty much everyone else. BRI is a means to that end. Americans are just beginning to consider how to address the enormous challenge that poses."

18. A Foreign General Is Helping to Lead US Army Europe. Other Commands Should Take Heed

defenseone.com · by Elisabeth Braw Associate Fellow, RUSI Read bio

I think US Army Pacific (and probably INDOPACOM) has similar relationships, particularly with the Australians. Then we have the 2d Combined Infantry Division in Korea.  And of course there is the UN Command in Korea which is certainly multinational.  And finally the bilateral command of the ROK/US Combined Forces Command.  I am sure that will generate a lot of press when the future commander is a ROK four star general. I just hope the ROK and US military and both governments will have executed a thorough information campaign to educate the press, the  pundits, and the policymakers of what that means (and perhaps more importantly what it does not mean).

19. Don Bendell: Green Berets, 'What were they, daddy?'

fayobserver.com · by Don Bendell

This has been stirring a lot of controversy in the Special Forces Regiment, especially in the retired community.  I had thought the plans for the new JFK Special Warfare center and School had included a building for a new museum.  But perhaps I am mistake since I have not seen those plans in over 10 years.

But from what I understand this is a done deal and the decision has been made on the way forward.


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"Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.

- Mark Twain 

 

"Heroism doesn't always happen in a burst of glory. Sometimes small triumphs and large hearts change the course of history."

- Mary Roach

 

"Foreknowledge cannot be gotten from ghosts and spirits, cannot be had by analogy, cannot be found out by calculation. It must be obtained from people, people who know the conditions of the enemy." 

- Sun Tzu, The Art of War


 

Categories: News