China’s War

THOUGHT LEADERS

China’s War on the World

‘The first step of gaining control of any population is to create some kind of fear’

“The pandemic was designed to create enormous fear in populations around the globe.”

Retired Air Force

Brig. Gen. Robert Spalding, author of "War Without Rules."

The warfare is daily,” Gen. Robert Spalding says of China’s policies. “It never ends.”

In two recent episodes of “American Thought Leaders,” host Jan Jekielek and retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert Spalding discuss the Chinese regime’s strategy of unrestricted warfare, in which any and all tools are allowed—from flooding our streets with fentanyl to stealing intellectual property to exploiting a global pandemic. The goal? To dominate the world without firing a single shot.

Spalding is an expert in unrestricted warfare and the author of the new book “War Without Rules: China’s Playbook for Global Domination.”

JAN JEKIELEK: “War Without Rules” is about another book, “Unrestricted Warfare,” which was written 20 years ago. You call that book the manual that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has used to achieve dominance in many areas. In your book, you use the example of how the CCP weaponized the pandemic to explain how one of these unrestricted warfare strategies could work. Why don’t you lay that out for me?

GEN. ROBERT SPALDING:

The pandemic was designed to create enormous fear in populations around the globe. The first step of gaining control of any population is to create some kind of fear. You’re willing to give up your freedom,

because you seek safety. In “Unrestricted Warfare,” they talk about how to create fear.

You have to understand what the CCP was doing. Scientists need data, and the Chinese were obfuscating the data. If you don’t have data, you plan for the worst and hope for the best. That’s what you’re thinking as an epidemiologist.

The CCP would never come out and say anything if there were a crisis. They seclude themselves. That allows them to watch the situation and see how it develops. They’re very good at figuring out a way to take advantage of how a thing is developing.

MR. JEKIELEK: There are other elements here. Chinese leader Xi Jinping, when the pandemic began, canceled domestic flights to stop the spread of the virus within China. But the Chinese media would scream racism at any suggestion that there would be a stoppage of international flights.

GEN. SPALDING: If you’re the CCP, you’re not going to allow Chinese nationals to fly inside the country, but you are going to allow them to fly internationally. Not only are you going to allow them to fly internationally, if a country says, “Don’t fly to our nation,” you’re going to say they’re racist.

Why? Because you want to take advantage. You don’t want to suffer the pandemic on your own. If it happened in America, we would say, “Let’s keep it here. Don’t let it break out internationally.” Now, you’re not thinking like the CCP, where warfare is daily; it never ends. Everybody needs to suffer the pandemic, because if we all suffer the pandemic, then they’ll be able to take advantage of that fact. They own the supply chain. They have personal protective equipment and masks and everything else. This is the way the CCP thinks.

And that’s what unrestricted warfare is all about.

Staff members prepare to spray disinfectant at Wuhan Railway Station in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on March 24, 2020.

MR. JEKIELEK: You describe the relationship of the CCP to the United States as a parasitic one. Please explain that.

GEN. SPALDING: If I create a system where you are tied to me economically, and your wealth is tied to our relationship, then I can use these economic relationships to manipulate you. Having the ability to use other nonviolent tools— tools that don’t involve any bloodshed yet still have the same outcomes—is what’s baked into unrestricted warfare.

The parasitic nature of China is one part industrial. The money that would’ve gone toward building infrastructure that supported our industrial base was poured into China. It wasn’t invested in the United States, in our industrial base and manufacturing; it was invested in China.

MR. JEKIELEK: You talk about this in your book. There was certainly massive growth, but you argue it was based on this unsustainable parasitic model.

GEN. SPALDING: Because everything that’s coming out of these free countries— the United States and the European Union—is going into China.

Ultimately, the problem with a parasite is that it ends up killing the host. In the case of the CCP, that is their goal anyway. They want to kill the host. You end up with a less efficient society that’s not well-organized or self-actualizing, but you’re better off than everybody else is, so you’ve won.

The brilliance of China is to give concessions by saying they’re going to give concessions but not actually giving the concessions. A good example of this is, “Stop hacking into our systems.” They reply, “Oh, OK. We’ll stop that.” But do they stop? No, they don’t stop.

MR. JEKIELEK: The example that always comes to my mind is, “Yes, we’ll stop taking organs from prisoners of conscience. We’ll do it.” But they don’t stop.

GEN. SPALDING: They don’t stop. “We’ll stop sending fentanyl.” But they don’t stop.

MR. JEKIELEK: What is going on with these extreme lockdowns in China?

GEN. SPALDING: Well, it could be to just see how far they can take it—how much can they control the population, or who are the ones who are the problems?

Maybe they’re testing how they might approach a Taiwan invasion, if it starts to go wrong or if it becomes too bloody and the population needs to be suppressed. I don’t think it’s because they actually believe that it will prevent the spread of COVID; that’s not it.

There are many things that go into how the CCP thinks about lockdowns, because they’re an incredible tool for control. The CCP doesn’t do things willy-nilly. It’s very deliberate.

“The money that would’ve gone toward building infrastructure that supported our industrial base was poured into China.”

What’s important to Xi is taking back Taiwan. He said he’s not going to leave it to the next generation. And I honestly don’t believe there’s anything we could do to stop the CCP from invading Taiwan.

What’s achievable for us is something that says, “Hey, we are going to do our best to ensure the safety of the people of Taiwan.” We’re not going to be able to stop China’s invasion. That’s beyond our ability at this point, because we’ve allowed them to build up too much military power on their side of the strait.

MR. JEKIELEK: Is what you just expressed a commonly held view?

GEN. SPALDING: I don’t think that we Americans are very good at saying, “We’re not the best.” But in war game after war game, we lose in a war with China over Taiwan. And not only do we lose, we lose fast. Really fast.

We have no chance—short of nuclear war—at winning a war [with China] over Taiwan. Nobody wants to contemplate nuclear war, because you’re talking about the potential end of civilization. So, if it’s the end of civilization, or if China gets Taiwan, what’s your choice if you’re the president of the United States? And if that’s the case, what do we do? What’s our responsibility? It’s to do the best we can to provide for [Taiwan] and to struggle to defeat communism, but you’re talking about a long-term struggle.

MR. JEKIELEK: So, what to do? And I don’t mean about Taiwan; I mean, in general. Are you suggesting that America needs to wage unrestricted warfare in response?

GEN. SPALDING: What is America? It’s a mind virus. It’s this idea that, by your nature, you’re supposed to be free as a human. And that’s a terribly powerful idea.

We need to get reacquainted with our own principles and values—what they mean. Therein lies the allure of America. We don’t have to wage unrestricted war on China. What we have to do is reach our true potential, because once Americans reach their true potential and have the blessings of liberty, then their enthusiasm and boundless energy cannot be subdued. It will shine like a beacon around the world.

For over two centuries, this has made us strong. People look to us and say, “I wish I were like that.” We’ve allowed China to basically erode international order, our own domestic institutions, and those principles and values. We must break free of that. Then, we’re going to shine like a beacon again. When we do, we can work with other nations with similar aspirations.

China can’t compete with that. They know it. That’s why they’re so afraid. There are Chinese people who would embrace American freedom if they could.

MR. JEKIELEK: Any final thoughts?

GEN. SPALDING: I just want to say thank you for what you’re doing as a journalist because I believe in the importance of the fourth estate. I believe in this country and in the Constitution. I believe that we have to fight to preserve it. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Chinese soldiers at a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sept. 8, 2020.

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