China’s plan for world dominance….Economics…..

• The longstanding U.S. strategy of engaging economically while hedging against China’s rise militarily was a mistake of historic proportions, essentially “putting wind at the back” of a burgeoning rival, Ward told me in an interview.
• In his book, Ward traces China’s vision of global preeminence back decades. He says President Xi Jinping merely “took the mask off” in recent years.
• Ward, whose research included poring over since-closed Communist Party archives, adds that “the greatest thing China’s given us is a very clear image of what they’re going to do.”

The big picture: “The objective is dominance in global affairs on a longer-term time frame,” Ward told me. “So, ideologically the idea is to restore their position — restore because they say they used to be the world’s supreme power and now they’re going to return to that — by the year 2049, which is the centennial of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.”

• To that end, China is endeavoring to “produce national champions in every sector” and dominate emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and 5G networks.
• The Belt and Road network of ports, roads and railways, meanwhile, is intended to impose the “coercive force of the Chinese economy… to build strategic beachheads” around the world. “In the 19th century we’d understand that as empire building,” Ward says.
• Ward says China’s government is mobilizing its economy, its military and its citizens toward the mission of “national rejuvenation.” He describes it as “the most comprehensive effort assembled in human history towards a very singular goal.”

The bottom line: “Essentially it’s full steam ahead on pretty much every human activity,….

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