In his excellent little book “The Rise of China vs. the Logic of Strategy,” Edward Luttwak shows how much the Chinese, and especially the country’s leadership, value their classic literature. Apart from Confucius’s “Analects,” there is perhaps no more famous or beloved Chinese book than Sun Tzu’s “Art of War.”
One of Sun Tzu’s most famous aphorisms is “To win without fighting is best.” Another goes something like this (translations vary widely): To destroy the enemy is not the acme of skill; to capture intact the enemy’s state, army, ship, city, fortress- that is the acme of skill.”
These two sentiments sum up Chinese strategy on Hong Kong and, as we shall see, Taiwan…
Every country in the world cares more about its own front yard than do countries half a world away. This is why it was so reckless of the USSR to try to place missiles in Cuba, and why it’s also reckless of the United States to needle Russia over Ukraine. One can utterly condemn Russian behavior in the Donbass, or China’s in the Taiwan Strait, and still see that those countries are more likely than not to fight over issues and regions that they see as vital to themselves but peripheral to us. Read more…
