From a humanitarian perspective, we should issue a warning to the American people and persuade them to leave America and leave the land they have lived in to the Chinese people. Or at least they should leave half the United States to be China’s colony, because America was first discovered by the Chinese. But would this work? If this strategy does not work, then there is only one choice left to us. That is, use decisive means to ‘clean up’ America and reserve America for our use….”
General Chi Haotian, 2003 Secret Speech
China’s defense minister, General Chi Haotian, looked at his desk calendar. On Saturday the Year of the Goat begins, he thought. The goat means luck. But I was born in the Year of the Snake – the “little dragon.” The skin of the snake is always cool, hiding a fervent heart. Chi looked out the window of his Defense Ministry Office at the smoggy Beijing skyline. The time was going by very quickly. He was scheduled to retire in March. How does an old snake retire? A copy of Sun Tzu’s Art of War sat on his desk. I will read classics, he thought to himself. Another book also sat on his desk. It was a volume of essays by Mao Zedong. He turned to the first section of the book, “Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society.”
Read more