The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower

by Michael Pillsbury

If America is going to compete in the Marathon, its thinking about China must change radically. This means recognizing that China is a competitor, not a welfare case.

STEP 2—KEEP TRACK OF YOUR GIFTS

STEP 3—MEASURE COMPETITIVENESS

Every year, the Chinese create an annual analysis of their competitiveness relative to the United States.

STEP 4—DEVELOP A COMPETITIVENESS STRATEGY

STEP 5—FIND COMMON GROUND AT HOME

STEP 6—BUILD A VERTICAL COALITION OF NATIONS

STEP 7—PROTECT THE POLITICAL DISSIDENTS

China also persecutes Christians. It is a common practice in China for foreigners to show their passports before being allowed to attend a church service in China.

STEP 8—STAND UP TO ANTI-AMERICAN COMPETITIVE CONDUCT

China is not just a source of cyber spying against the United States; it is the primary source.

STEP 9—IDENTIFY AND SHAME POLLUTERS

While the United States and Europe together are cutting their greenhouse gas emissions by sixty million tons a year, China is increasing its own by more than five hundred million tons annually.

STEP 10—EXPOSE CORRUPTION AND CENSORSHIP

STEP 11—SUPPORT PRODEMOCRACY REFORMERS

STEP 12—MONITOR AND INFLUENCE THE DEBATES BETWEEN CHINA’S HAWKS AND REFORMERS

“It is China’s intention to be the greatest power in the world,” Lee says bluntly, “and to be accepted as China, not as an honorary member of the West.… At the core of their mind-set is their world before colonization and the exploitation and humiliation that brought.”

“If you believe that there is going to be a revolution of some sort in China for democracy,” he states, “you are wrong.… The Chinese people want a revived China.”

I believe the Chinese leadership has learnt that if you compete with America in armaments, you will lose. You will bankrupt yourself. So, avoid it, keep your head down, and smile for forty or fifty years.”

Aristotle’s admonition that “criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.”

There are at least three intellectual traps we may fall into that will prevent recognition of the true nature of the problem. The first is premature fear of a China threat.

The second trap for critics of China is to misidentify its strategy to replace America.

The third intellectual trap is relevant only to U.S. government officials. The American public is unaware of the extent of the covert cooperation between Washington and Beijing over the past forty years. There is a long history of Chinese support for U.S. clandestine activities, which in turn has convinced many U.S. officials to see China as a current and prospective partner. Our history of clandestine cooperation has prejudiced many American policymakers in favor of China’s hawks, who were responsible for implementing these covert programs.