The Best Way China Could Bring Down the US - 23 November 2011

How China can defeat America...

US DEFENSE spending is unlikely to decrease. Not with America's security at stake – and not with China posing an ever-greater threat, writes Bill Bonner, founder of the Daily Reckoning.

An article by academic Yan Xuetong, translated from mandarin, tells "How China can defeat America." The gist of Mr. Xuetong's thought is that rising hegemons are a lot nicer than declining ones. Besides that, history is on the side of the rising power.

The US has become a tyrannical power, he insinuates, throwing its weight around wherever it can. China, on the other hand, is a helpful hegemon...a "humane authority." While the US has military alliances all over the world...China has none. While the US has fought numerous wars over the last two decades, China's military hasn't been involved in conflict since 1984.

China has been preoccupied with her own internal issues...mostly related to employment and growth. But China's economy grew 71 times faster than the US over the last four years. At that rate, it won't be long before US output is actually lower than China's.

Mr. Xuetong believes China should do as it did during the Tang dynasty, when it brought in foreigners as high ranking officials to help it take its place on the world stage.

No doubt there are other Chinese who are more hardnosed about it. Rarely does one empire give way to a successor peacefully. There are bound to be Chinese thinkers, whose works aren't translated, who are speculating about how the Chinese can defeat the US in a real war. They're surely devising a strategy...and developing new technologies...right at this very moment.

How could China defeat the US? Easy, it could spook US lawmakers into spending more money...wasting more military resources...and driving the nation into bankruptcy. In short, it could just wait.

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