The "Main Enemy"

In 1990, the Chinese government officially declared the United States its "main enemy" (Mosher, 2000). Up until that time, there had been a tenuous alliance between the U.S. and China in order to deter its main enemy at the time, the USSR. Once the Soviet Union fell, China switched its focus back to the US. We, however, continued to treat China as an ally.

In 1994 Deng Xiaoping, China's preeminent post-Mao leader, stated that China should "...hide our capabilities and bide our time." Yu Yanyao, the executive vice president of the Central (Communist) Party School further explained this principle thus: "'Hiding our capacities' means concealing our aspiration and talent; 'biding our time' means undergoing all possible hardships and living in seclusion to await the opportune moment" (Yanyao, 2003).

The vice commandant of the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences stated in 1996, "[As for the U.S.] it will be absolutely necessary that we quietly nurse our sense of vengeance...we must conceal our abilities and bide our time" (FEER, 1996).

In 2000, the Chinese minister of defense declared "With the United States, war is inevitable...the Chinese armed forces must control the initiative...we must make sure that we would win this modern high tech war that the mighty bloc headed by the U.S. hegemonists may launch to interfere in our affairs." (Ming, 2000). Can you imagine if U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had said the same thing about China? The world would be in an uproar. And yet will we sit by and ignore it when it is said by the Chinese minister of defense?

To dismiss the statements of Chinese leaders would be to make the same mistake we made in dismissing bin Laden's threats during the 90's. Unfortunately, this time the consequences could be far worse.

References

Cheng Ming (Hong Kong), [in Chinese], Jan. 4, 2000, broadcast on "Part 3 Asia-Pacific, "Summary of the World", BBC, January 6, 2000, FE/D3730/F2.

Constantine C. Menges, Ph.D., "China: The Gathering Threat", Nelson Current, 2005.

Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER), October 3, 1996.

Hsu, "Rise of Modern China", 935.

Stephen W. Mosher, "Hegemon", (San Francisco: Encounter, 2000), 7.

Yu Yanyao, "Epoch-making Significance of Hiding our Capabilities to Bide Our Time," [in Chinese], "Liaowang", March 17, 2003.

Note: nearly all of the references listed above were discovered in the book "China: The Gathering Threat", Intro. and Chs. 1-2.