But the willingness of many legislators, such as Pelosi, to antagonize Beijing for no good strategic purpose shows they do not realize just how alarming the situation has become.Ĭhina’s military expenditure has historically outpaced economic growth The Pentagon has been warning for years that China’s military buildup is changing the correlation of forces in East Asia. Whether the US is ready for the train wreck that so many of its own officials see coming is a different matter. The impression one gets from conversations around Washington is that many officials believe that a major Chinese use of force against Taiwan - whether an outright invasion or simply a coercive blockade - could come in the next three to five years, once President Xi Jinping is more confident that his fast-modernizing People’s Liberation Army can prevail. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines has characterized that threat as “acute.” In public, the Pentagon now says only that it does not expect an invasion in the next two years. This isn’t some well-kept secret: National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan recently told Bloomberg News that there is a “distinct threat” of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The crisis that erupted in August, after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan and Beijing responded with its largest show of force in the Western Pacific in a quarter-century, made many US officials fear that the countdown to conflict had started. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February drove home the threat of autocratic aggression across the democratic world. Historians may one day look back on 2022 as the moment when the free world truly realized that “great-power competition” entails an inherent risk of great-power conflict. If America wants to win a potential great-power war with China a few years from now, it had better start rearming far more seriously before the shooting starts. Today, the US needs to take a vital lesson from the war in Ukraine - as well as from its own experience, generations ago, in World War II. “Wise men learn from other people’s experience.” It is always better to glean hard lessons from someone else’s war than from one’s own. The War of Resistance began in 1937, when Japan launched a full-scale invasion after the July 7th Incident, also known as the Lugou Bridge Incident.“Fools learn by experience,” the very quotable German chancellor Otto von Bismarck once remarked. These five gave up their stable life abroad some 70 years ago to fight the Japanese invaders and emotions are still raw when they think of the war. And in Southwest China's Yunnan province, a special commemoration was held in honor of overseas Chinese mechanics from South Asia who returned to fight for their country during the war of resistance against Japanese aggression. Zhijiang county was where Japanese troops officially surrendered in 1945, six days after the Japanese emperor announced an end to the war. In the county of Zhijiang in Central China's Hunan province, thousands gathered to remember history and here memories of the war passed from one generation to another. Meanwhile, across China commemorative activities for the victory were also being held. Afterward, he led the applause as thousands of doves were released.showing China's wish for world peace. President Xi Jinping and other state leaders presented flower bouquets to honor Chinese soldiers who fought against Japan after it invaded China in 1937. And a minute of silence for the 35 million Chinese who were killed or wounded in the war. Meanwhile, across the country, official and non-official activities have been held to mark the 69th anniversary of the victory day.Ĭhinese leaders mark anti-Japanese war victory dayġ,500 attendees gathered at the Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression to recall history, commemorate martyrs and cherish peace.Ī 14-gun salute fired to symbolize the 14 years of fighting against the Japanese aggressors. In Beijing, a special ceremony has been held at the Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which was attended by President Xi Jinping, along with other state leaders, veterans and youths.
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