Terrified of a Peer Competitor, US Capitalists Make Up Stories About China's Goals.

Palmer Luckey

Palmer Luckey is a right-wing business magnate who is very much involved in the military industrial complex. He described himself as a “Radical Zionist” in one interview.

 

Luckey wrote this on X with regard to China:

"Taiwan is not the end state for China. All the people who think this fight over Taiwan is the real fight are missing the point. China believes that the Philippines is their territory. They believe that Korea is their territory. They also believe that North Korea is their territory but they like them as a buffer state with South Korea but that would change the moment they could actually capture South Korea. 

They even think that most of Japan belongs to them. They think that it's theirs. They've tried over and over for 1000s of years and even today, even publicly, they won't say they own all of Japan but they do maintain they own part of Japan.

 It is really dangerous to let people with millennia long ambitions of ruling those areas go unchecked. Because even if you don't give a shit about Taiwan, which you should because our entire economy runs on chips from them and until we figure out how to make them better or as good ourselves we have to keep them around, there's a lot of reasons to make sure we're spooking China on Day 8, Day 80, Day 800."

 

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Arnaud Bertrand, whose comments I have shared on this blog in the past and who is on X as @RnaudBertrand takes Luckey up on his ridiculous and completely dishonest appraisal of China and some of its history. Luckey’s comments are not accurate and are simply right wing political propaganda, very common among the white nationalists, fascists, Christian nationalists, Nazis and others that are in the Trump menagerie.

 

Mr. Bertrand writes frequently on China and I think lives there. He is worth following if you are on X. I am not endorsing Mr. Bertrand’s political views (I am not that familiar with them) by sharing this excellent response on China.

 

 

This is so ridiculously wrong, I'm not sure where to start.

Arnaud Betrand

At no point in its thousand years long history has China invaded Japan, not once. Japan has however invaded China at least 3 times, most recently of course during World War Two. 

China does have some disputed territory with Japan, specifically the Diaoyu Islands (Senkaku Islands), which were part of China until 1895 when Japan annexed them together with Taiwan. These are very small uninhabited islands so it's utterly ridiculous to claim that China "thinks that most of Japan belongs to them". 

There's also the question of Okinawa, formerly the Ryukyu Kingdom, annexed by Japan in 1879. To this day there's a strong independence movement on these islands and many inhabitants descend from China (the Ryukyu Kingdom was a tributary state of the Ming and Qing dynasty) but China has never claimed the territory, either historically or today. 

China doesn't believe that Korea - North or South - is its territory. Same as Japan, at no point ever in its history has China invaded Korea. It has however defended Korea several times against invasions, be it from Japan during the Ming Dynasty or from the U.S. during the Korean war (which famously led to the creation of North Korea which, contrary to popular belief, is very much NOT a vassal state of China). 

China doesn't believe that the Philippines is its territory. They have a dispute over some islands in the South China Sea, most notably the Spratly islands which are claimed not only by China and the Philippines but also, in whole or part, by virtually all the other countries around the South China Sea. Very much worth mentioning: the Philippines' claim over the islands is much more recent than China's and most other claimants' (the Philippines starting claiming the islands in 1972 when China's formal claim dates back since even before the creation of the PRC in 1946). 

 

As for Taiwan, yes, the PRC claims Taiwan and literally all the countries in the world - including the United States - agree under the One-China Policy that Taiwan is part of China (although not part of the PRC). Heck even Taiwan itself officially agrees that it is part of China - its official name is the Republic of China and some 95% of their population are Han Chinese. If you go to the national museum in Taipei, you'll find the world's largest collection of Chinese art and artifacts, brought over by the Kuomintang when they retreated to the island, and the museum claims to embody 5,000 years of Chinese civilization. The reality is that the root of the dispute over Taiwan isn't about territory - it's about which government is the legitimate ruler of China, a civil war that never officially ended. To frame this as some sort of expansionist land grab completely misses the historical context. 

 

All in all, if one studies China's history within its region, it's probably one of the least aggressive great powers in history. Despite being the dominant power in East Asia for most of recorded history, China historically preferred diplomatic influence over territorial conquest. Even during periods of maximum strength, China focused on trade and diplomatic relations rather than colonization or territorial acquisition. You just need to look at the facts: China hasn't fired a single bullet on foreign grounds in over 45 years. Which other country can claim the same in today's world? The list is awfully short. 

 

It's absolutely insane to frame China as this sort of bloodthirsty warmongering power, especially when you're American... And it's even more disgusting to do so when you're yourself literally a weapons manufacturer, as is Palmer Luckey.