Can we avoid a military confrontation with China?

U.S. DOMINANCE AND "CHINA'S DREAM" COLLIDE

HAS THE PANDEMIC HASTENED THE INEVITABLE?

Shortly after taking power in 2012, Chinese premier Xi Jinping gave a speech to the Chinese communist party were he echoed the theme of a 2010 book,"The China Dream", by Liu Mingfu a colonel in the Peoples Liberation Army. The view of this book was the China would become the dominant military and economic power by the year 2049, 100 years after the Chinese Communist revolution.

While China has had the fastest growing economy in world history ever since it liberalized parts of the country with capitalist policies. It has only recently begun it's quest to be a military rival of the United States. It has been building a large modern military, a Navy, complete with ballistic missile submarines, and air power with modern stealth aircraft. Much of this technology has been acquired by their intelligence program that has stolen directly by agent's working in our defense industry. This has been going on for many years.

China has also contributed large sums to many U.S. universities, where it has gained access to much of our research and development. They have also required that U.S companies hand over all intellectual property to gain access to manufacture in China.

Many U.S. and international corporations have had a love affair with China, they have been willing to give them the expertise to become a world power in exchange for the ability to reap the largest possible profits by manufacturing with third world wages and selling to first world markets. 

Without China's access to the the E.U. and the United States it could have never advanced in the manner that it has. Particularly the United States, which has the largest and most vibrant consumer market in the world.

While the intelligence community has been warning politicians in the western world for years, most have ignored the warnings. For some it is the lure of large profits, for others it is the romance of a Communist country being successful. Whatever the reason, there has up until the election of Donald Trump, very little push-back on China. Many American have the illusion that the United States is the richest and most powerful nation in the world and it will always be so.

It is a fact,that Donald Trump has made great strides in convincing this nation that our trading practices with China have destroyed American manufacturing jobs and increased our dependence on a possible adversary for essential products and materials.

His tough re-negotiation of trade policies with China, which was mostly constructed by the Chinese themselves, was criticized by many, particularly in the financial community. They all advocated free trade, which was free for China but our products were often tariffed or shut out of the Chinese market.

Trump talked nice, but held his ground until China finally realized it needed to compromise at least in public. It is anyone's guess if they will ever abide by any trade agreement.

It is possible that China has realized that its goal of a," The China Dream" will not be possible with a limited access to the American consumer market. It has also seen push-back by many of its neighbors as they watch the militarization of China, even building artificial island in the South China sea to be Chinese military bases and Chinese territory.

Did China decide it had to take decisive action to limit the western world's ability to resist its goal of the "The China Dream".

Whether the Wuhan virus was an accident, a freak of nature, or a intentional act is still being debated.  We have come to understand that China knew it was a very contagious virus, but told the world it was not.

Its confederates in the World Health Organization, either were incompetent or complicate in telling the world it was not contagious. 

China locked down Wuhan province to all travel to the rest of China, but allowed unlimited flights to the western world. 

They rapidly procured all the medical safety equipment they could while telling the world it was not contagious.

They refused till this day to allow any independent scientific analysis in their lab or in Wuhan.

Whatever, if by plan or incompetence, the relationship with China will  never be the same. It would take a massive effort by the Chinese to convince the world that they are innocent parties in this affair. It looks more like they have decided to take the opposite course, possibly believing they can prevail in any effort to limit Chines dominance.