“They’re outsmarting us,” says China expert Michael Pillsbury. “It’s really very simple.”
In this recent episode of “American Thought Leaders,” host Jan Jekielek talks with Michael Pillsbury, director for Chinese strategy at the Hudson Institute and author of “The Hundred-Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower.” Pillsbury played a key role in the United States initiating military and intelligence ties with China as far back as the 1980s. Here, they discuss China’s Warring States tactics, its secret exploitation of America to fuel its own rise, and the pressing reasons why the United States needs to formulate a response.
Jan Jekielek: The Chinese Communist Party Congress just ended with some very public theatrics. The past supreme leader of the Communist Party in China, Hu Jintao, was walked out of the room in front of the cameras. What do you make of this?
Michael Pillsbury: You can interpret it as Hu Jintao making an appeal to Xi Jinping. He turns toward him and says something. Xi Jinping replies very briefly. Then the former general secretary moves to the prime minister and puts his hand on his shoulder. It’s almost as if he’s saying, “Do I really have to leave?”
But as you point out, Jan, to put this on global television is really a sign of Xi Jinping’s power that even a former president can be dismissed with a wave of the hand.
Mr. Jekielek: The thesis of “The Hundred-Year Marathon” is that the Chinese Communist Party has a 100-year plan, which will end around 2050, to subvert America—to take America’s role as the global hegemon.
Dr. Pillsbury: China has a strategy for turning themselves into the global superpower by obtaining technology, capital trade, and other goodies from America. It’s a brilliant plan. It’s a long-term hope that if they squeeze the Americans for everything they can, and pretend to be America’s friend and ally, they will end up number one in the world. They often refer to the tactics of the Warring States period. One of those tactics was a win or lose. I win. You lose. Only one country got to lead the world, and that country had to destroy the others, set them against each other, or undermine them.
But almost never was there war itself. That’s the most important lesson.
The Chinese deny this. They say they don’t have a secret plan, that they will never seek hegemony or global domination.
My book begins with six examples of wishful thinking that I and others in the government working on China policy all shared. This belief might have come from our undergraduate courses in history that progress is the nature of civilization. All countries are moving toward progress, enlightenment, prosperity, world order, and so China is not studied as a unique civilization in our schools or our government programs. China is thought of as being part of this grand movement of humanity toward a progressive future in which there’s no more war, no more poverty.
By Jan Jekielek and Jeff Minick
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Michael Pillsbury: How US Government Agencies Secretly Aided Communist China’s Rise
“I fear they’re outsmarting us over and over again,” says China expert Michael Pillsbury, director for Chinese strategy at the Hudson Institute and author of “The Hundred-Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower.”
Pillsbury played a key role in the United States initiating military and intelligence ties with China, starting in the 1980s. Many relationships between Chinese and U.S. agencies have continued to this day, Pillsbury says.
“Some things have been redacted, removed from [‘The Hundred-Year Marathon’]. … The CIA and FBI and DOD felt they’re telling too much about just how deeply involved we were in China,” Pillsbury says.
How did the Chinese communist regime secretly exploit America to fuel its own rise?
“They often refer to the Warring States and the tactics of the Warring States period. … Only one country got to lead the world and that country had to destroy the others or set them against each other or undermine them, steal their technology. There were a variety of techniques that were used [but] almost never war itself. Almost never war itself. It’s the most important lesson.”
