September 2011 Archives

As mentioned in my previous post, former China defense minister Chi Haotian called for the use of WMD to annihilate the US population in an act of ethnic cleaning never before seen in human history.

One such method of WMD attack - and also comparatively low-cost - that is gaining wider attention is the use of EMP (or Electromagnetic Pulse). China could employ this method through a proxy power such as Iran or North Korea or a non-state actor, thereby concealing the return address (or China may decide as it examines its cost-to-benefit ratio that such an attack is worth losses suffered during the response).

Here's how it works: A single nuclear missile is detonated at apogee above the continental United States, Europe, Israel, India, Japan or other target sending out several waves of energy toward everything within line-of-sight. Power grids, unshielded electronics such as your computer, transportation (cars, delivery trucks, ambulances, aircraft, etc.), radios and TVs would all be fried. This would have devastating consequences, as you might well imagine.

I believe this is one of the most crucial issues facing the world from a security standpoint. In fact, an EMP has the potential to kill up to 90% of the affected population within a year after the event due to the natural die-off resulting from infrastructure collapse.* It normally takes about ten years to replace major power transformers - and that's under the most ideal conditions. During that time, there would be no way to get food, water, medicine, and other essentials to market; there would be no means of transporting the sick, no method for regulating the indoor climate in hospitals and nursery homes or disposing of waste. Disease, starvation, and the elements would take their toll. And many of the illnesses and accidents treatable today would also become fatal. Refugees would also swarm the countryside, overwhelming those who believed their isolation and self-sufficiency would sustain them.  

If any regime deserves to be taken seriously in its threat to annihilate an entire population, that regime is surely CCP China, which has murdered over 70 million of its own people and counting, making it the most genocidal regime in human history. This is also a regime that makes no effort to diminish the cruelty of death, as we see from its harvesting of organs from living dissidents and the practice of filleting others alive. The regime has also built a vast network of mysterious and pristine cities across its country, which are completely uninhabited, as well as massive underground bunkers. It seems reasonable to assume these serve a strategic purpose and it is clear that it would be strategically useful for a regime intent on initiating - and winning - a nuclear confrontation with an enemy.

As is widely known, Iran has already tested the idea of detonating a missile at apogee and is presently acquiring both missile and nuclear technology from China, Russia, and others within that axis.

However, even if we were to eliminate all nuclear weapons and other man-made sources of EMP tomorrow, of grave concern also is the threat posed by solar events such as the Carrington event of 1859. Such an event - which occurs about every 100 years - would be global. Without hardened infrastructure from the electrical grid to transportation and communications, we are all literally sitting under the gun. That is why the best first strategy for ameliorating this unthinkable threat is to increase our survivability, as mentioned above. The next solar event is inevitable and is also arguably already overdue, and the reduced benefit of a first strike will also deter potential aggressors who seek to use a man-made event to score a quick win.

Without the will to develop new and more secure technologies, there is very little we can do to mitigate such an event, be it naturally-occurring or as the result of an attack from China directly or one of its proxies. So it is key that we understand that the moment to act is now. Otherwise, the inevitable will come. It will either be man-made or sun-caused, but at the point at which it occurs, civilization will suffer a severe downgrade and millions - possibly billions - of unique human beings with hopes, dreams, and aspirations will slowly and agonizingly vanish from the face of the earth.


*Forstchen, William R. One Second After. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, 2009.

Martin is a master's student in national security studies and is the executive director of Samizdat International, a genuine human rights concern. Martin undertook his internship with the London-based Henry Jackson Society in the summer of 2009. He hates the Turabian style format.

So GE is finally meeting with the Pentagon to discuss tech transfer concerns on China. About time. The fact GE does any business with the regime should draw into serious question the prospect of future contracts with the Department of Defense, to say nothing of technology transfers which should be treated as criminal.

We should never forget the incestuous relationship between Democrat administrations, corporate cronies, and the Chinese regime, with quid pro quos such as we saw in the 1990s with PLA generals who donated to Bill Clinton's re-election campaign. But none of the last four administrations has dealt with or even truly acknowledged the reality that China was fighting a cold war against us whether we wanted them to or not. Part of what is needed is a president who will take a page from the Reagan playbook and severely curtail technology and tradecraft access by the regime.

Two weeks ago, the Pentagon released its annual report on China, and you know it's bad when a Democrat administration finally admits a communist regime that is seeking to destroy the US is actually seeking to destroy the US. Of course, it is also rather shameful that the Bush 43 administration did little to counter the Chinese aggressor, either. In fact, the same year as the 9/11 attacks, China hackers broke into the Pentagon and stole 20 terabytes of data. "If the information had been on paper, they'd have needed a line of moving vans stretching from the Pentagon to freighters docked 50 miles away in Baltimore harbor just to haul it away." As an aside, both this cyber attack and 9/11 occured two years after the 1999 publication of "Unrestricted Warfare" by two PLA officers detailing the use of cyber warfare, terrorism, and other asymmetrical methods to destroy the US.

But even if we gained the upper hand in the cyberwar, how secure would our classified information, corporate secrets and patents be? The regime has made it no secret it uses nationals abroad to spy. Again, common sense serves well: a totalitarian regime that controls every aspect of its people's lives and information flow would let its people freely travel abroad? As with the Soviet Union, those who are permitted to travel are presumed to be those who loyally represent the interests of the regime. At present there are literally thousands of Chinese nationals in the US working ostensibly as students. Naturally, responding to this threat is of the imperative. That's never a perfect process, but it means that most Chinese nationals in the US should be considered hostile. Thus, we should also drastically limit the number of PRC nationals permitted in the US under any circumstances, while at the same time reverse the trend in recent years, which has been to reject those seeking asylum. Part of a good strategy also involves helping China to become a peaceful partner one day, and that means regime change to a stable, peaceful, liberal electoral democracy.

Some might suggest that calling for severely curtailing access by Chinese nationals to the US is a bit harsh. They might also argue that the US benefits more than it is harmed by their presence. So we think. There's a trade-off for everything and unfortunately, this is the case as well. There are certainly quite a few Taiwanese who'd love a shot. The reality is that China has stolen billions from the US in terms of technology and trade secrets as well as military secrets which may one day cost actual lives. Any short term gain proffered by their inclusion is also muted by that gain being passed back to the PRC, which effectively nullifies any advantage. Again, we are not talking about friendly competitors but strategic enemies, as was the case with the Soviet Union. And in the case of China, an enemy whose military leaders have already called for the extermination of the entire US population through use of WMD - if achieved, the greatest genocide in human history.

So we must bar those who are from enemy regimes. China does not allow those it thinks are hostile to its regime to travel outside its borders but instead only permits those to study abroad it thinks will act in its interest. In the long run, the US benefits more greatly from not having its technology siphoned off by a hostile regime and used against it. There are plenty of places in the world from which we can invite students and research partners. We can also invite Chinese officials to defect. But we cannot allow the regime access to our sensitive areas, which unfortunately, due to the nature of Sino intelligence, is a pretty wide swath of academia and S&T (science and technology).

Think about that 10,000 students working on behalf of an enemy regime. We don't benefit. They give us candy laced with poison. The same can be said for poor cyber security. Whatever is gained in the short run in terms of efficiency is lost many times over down the road. Communist China is our enemy and a threat to our vital national security interests. Secrecy is an art we must relearn in order to win the new cold war with this illegitimate regime. It's unfortunate, but the reality is it's just the way the cookie has to crumble. If we want to see Chinese nationals studying in this country again, we'd better get to work helping with regime change over there.

There are a good many things we all want, but as adults we must accept reality on its terms and then find a way to change it to our liking. The path to changing this reality lies not through pretending it does not exist but through a host of proactive policies both defensive and safely humanitarian in that part of the world to bring it about. No one seeing a truck approaching steps out into the road in front of it to get run over; instead he waits for the truck to pass and then he can safely cross the street. And we'll have to wait, but that is the price of the win-win. How long we have to wait will of course greatly depend on what kind of administration we have next.

Martin is a master's student in national security studies and is the executive director of Samizdat International, a genuine human rights concern. Martin undertook his internship with the London-based Henry Jackson Society in the summer of 2009. He hates the Turabian style format.

Apparently, Business Insider is now hiring staff writers for Xinhua, China's state-run "news" agency. In fact, the propaganda (both in tone and content) is so thick in this hit piece directed at America and its people that it likely would move members of the CCP to tears.  So we decided to go through each of "The 9 Things About America That You Knew Were True - But Aren't" and give you the aren'ts'  aren'ts.


1. July 4th isn't really an important day

"The founding fathers would be surprised to learn that we celebrate on the 4th. John Adams, future second president of the United States, wrote that 'the Second of July, 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.'" Actually, the writers of this piece should have suggested that perhaps some of the founding fathers might have initially felt this way. July 4th quickly became the traditional date of commemoration for our declaration of independence from Britain as well as other patriotic reasons: the date in 1778 also marked an important victory for George Clark's forces, and in 1802, it was the date West Point Military Academy opened. It was also the date of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the date Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both passed away in 1826, and the date slavery was abolished in law and practice by the State of New York in 1827.


2. The Pilgrims were just a bunch of racists and were only inconvenienced by authorities harshing their buzz in Europe

As we can already tell, Eric Goldschein and Robert Johnson - the two mind-numbed public school automatons who wrote this piece - seem to have a clear bias, which becomes further evident by dismissing "persecution" and replacing it with "frustration". In reality, Pilgrims were in fear of their lives, which rises somewhat above mere "frustration". Furthermore, the Founding Fathers established no "separation of church and state" - a slogan of the left ever since it was taken out of context from a private letter by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists and began being employed in the 20th Century to read into the Constitution the exact opposite of what the letter and the spirit of the law states.


3. Betsy Ross didn't design the flag

The article's title claims that nine things "aren't" true, so the writer must have meant to include this one, too; however, the writers admit here no one seems to know. Even the simplest mind (except for atheists) knows that lack of data does not prove a negative. Just the tone of this segment further supports the idea that Goldschein and Johnson had an axe to grind.


4. Salem witches not burned at the stake

The witch-hunters did burn accused witches at the stake in Europe, but the writers are correct on this point. Interesting to note, however, that the writers did not go out of their way here to minimize these trials in the historical context, even though they were rather slight in scope and short-lived compared to those in Europe. But this fact might have been an inconvenient truth in support of the many reasons we fled Europe, one of which being the sheer barbarity. I do give the writers a few points for mentioning the Salem body count of 20; however, literally scores of thousands were burned to death and murdered in other ways across the pond. This fact should have been mentioned as well, if the goal were to supply accurate context (e.g. Mexico outlawed slavery - at least on paper - in 1830).


5. The Alamo was about defending slavery rather than freedom

This is complete revisionism. Santa Anna was one of the most egregious tyrants and violators of human rights on the continent. Sadly, the Mexican government remains one of the most elitist (and unpopular) faux democracies in our hemisphere today. Furthermore, Mexico outlawed slavery the same way Communist China today has freedom of religion in its constitution: a formality as a rule ignored in practice.


6. Revere's words aren't sufficiently exact, so we should hate America

"Someone needs to let Sarah [Palin] know" what? The original controversy to which the embedded image of Palin intimates is whether Revere also warned the British, not over the exact words that Revere used, which is what this hit piece falteringly addresses. In fact, the exact words used by Revere would not have made much sense in recounting the story in later generations, which is why for generations we paraphrased them with, "The British are coming!", as Longfellow discussed but also did not state verbatim in his famous poem. The fact that Goldschein and Johnson take issue with this and for added measure takes a swipe at Palin further lends to the obvious, which is this Business Insider bit is little more than an anti-American hit piece that is also perfectly happy to go after those who are outspoken supporters of America for good measure.


7. Wild West wasn't quite so wild

Congratulations to the writers who have at last - on number seven out of nine - scored one for their "win" column. The Wild West was not as wild as the writers' friends in Hollywood have portrayed it. But before we give Goldschein and Johnson their trophy for getting one right, this win might turn out to be a bigger loss. Why? Because the political left to which Goldschein and Johnson clearly belong has long associated the Wild West with those crazy savages in flyover country - or basically anyone not an East- or Left Coast liberal establishment type. So as we look deeper we realize these gems have shot themselves in the foot. But hopefully this wild west-style fiction-slinging won't wind up following them around in their apparently early careers.


8. Lindbergh wasn't the first to fly around the world

This is a half-win for our dynamic komrade duo in the sense that this is true. Unfortunately, they fail to provide historical context, which I found odd. It's interesting to note they avoided mentioning Lindbergh's anti-Semitism and love for socialism and the Nazis - views likely in many respects shared by these writers' political clique.


9. "US not responsible for winning World War II in Europe"

At last something the US isn't responsible for. That is of course because it is a good thing, according to these writers, who have been brainwashed to also conclude that since the US is evil, it can't be recognized for doing good. That the US isn't "resonsible for winning WWII in Europe" is also a popular meme among non-American participants in the war who were humiliated by having the crap beat out of them by Nazi Germany at the time the US stepped in and began smashing heads together, further pointing out their humiliation. In fact, I worked with a Russian during my time in London and we debated this matter a couple of times. There is no question that every little bit helped, so the Soviets deserved some credit (actually, by that logic, Germany deserves some credit for not learning Napoleon's lesson and invading the Soviet Union and getting attacked by bad weather). The British (thanks to American arms and support), a handful of French, and other resistance fighters (thanks to American arms and support) also deserve credit for their courageous role in standing up to the Germans. But the reality is that they were all but Lilliputians until the US King Kong showed up on the scene and took Hitler down. Even Churchill knew it was the Americans that had saved the British Empire. That far-left revisionists like the ones who wrote this piece follow an old, infamous antithetical meme says more about the writers than it informs us on the details of history. That the writers intimate that the genocidist Stalin is the real hero both smacks of genocide-denier Walter Durranty of the NYT and fails to give meteorology the credit it is due, to say nothing of denying the US role in defeating Nazi Germany.


As pointed out, our beloved writers clearly had a bone to pick with the US. In eight of the nine short swipes, they managed to spout the leftist party line without a single error - a sycophant's ape-rate even writers for Xinhua have trouble at times attaining. This Business Insider bit is far from serious and is nothing more than a hit piece filled with the ersatz slogans we come to expect in any friendly PLA writing course. Given Business Insider's low bar for its writers, I honestly wouldn't waste my time at Business Insider going forward. Interestingly, Business Insider, also offers a piece titled, "The 25 Worst Mistakes In History". Surprisingly, denying the Soviet strategic threat and human rights violations for decades and hiring these two writers didn't make the list. Better to stick to something like the Wall Street Journal, where even the liberal writers attempt to write for grownups. Or you could always head over to Cracked.

Martin is a master's student in national security studies and is the executive director of Samizdat International, a genuine human rights concern. Martin undertook his internship with the London-based Henry Jackson Society in the summer of 2009. He hates the Turabian style format.