46 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
China & Russia No 1 Threat, Not Terrorism (but connected), June 5, 2005
This review is from: China: The Gathering Threat (Hardcover)
Excellect and vital read for all, ESPECIALLY those sworn to defend the West in the fields of Intelligence, Security & Defense; and, those who serve in elected office or who make policy recommendations to same.
One critical element Dr. Menges - a most important dot of connection - misses, is that the strategic alliance between Russia and China is not something new nor has it been a natural outgrowth of geo-political events of the last 18 years. It was foretold and explained by KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn in "New Lies for Old" and "The Perestroika Deception" more than 25 years ago. (Golitsyn was finally sacked by the Nixon administration because of his insistence that there never existed a real Sino-Soviet split - it was a deception all along to work a scissors strategy against the West. Their methods are standard dialectial fare in the world of deception.)
It is a major mistake to think that we can convince Russia to move toward the West and to sate China's ambitions via clever policy moves. The mask both countries wear were designed to make us believe these false notions. Part and parcel of Russia and China's long-range deception is to mislead the West into thinking these exact false notions are possible. While the West tries to pry these two threats apart, they become better positioned for their ultimate goal - the same as all history's would-be dominators.
The deception component of Russia and China MUST be at least considered in order to know how to respond to the threat. These are the issues spoken about for years amongst the few and found at this totally, non-commercial website: http://www.thefinalphase.com ("The final phase" is a term used by Golitsyn to describe the dangerous time we're in now.)
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
39 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The China Threat Is Real-This Book Proves It, September 13, 2005
This review is from: China: The Gathering Threat (Hardcover)
Here is a voluminous, well researched, and timely analysis of China's impending power grab in Asia. More books are sure to come, but so far none have been warmly received by the New York Eastern publishing establishment.
That China bashing is not a popular subject on Wall Street is demonstrated by the fact that even if you are an ex-assistant to the President for National Security, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a former National Intelligence officer at the CIA, an advisor to Congress and a senior professor of International Relations at George Washington University, as Professor Menges was, your book will end up being published posthumously by an obscure printing house in Tennessee on cheap paper.
But whatever the case may be, Professor Menges' book is an analytical work, not a China bashing book. Even so, the facts he has accumulated are (or should be) alarming to the Western World. Simply put: China has become powerful enough both economically and militarily to challenge the US influence in Asia, in fact, to kick the US right out of Asia if she chooses to (and as China has already promised to do).
The ignition switch for the Chinese power grab is Taiwan, a heated and escalating situation the Western media has done little or nothing to publicize. To put it mildly, China could invade Taiwan at any time, but might hold out until shortly before or after the Olympic games of 2008 (which will take place in China). A US reaction could provoke a Sino-American war in Asia. But in spite of this, it is abundantly clear that China's ambition goes beyond Taiwan and is a regional ambition to replace the United States as the dominating power in Asia.
Menges outlines a steady Chinese operation to undermine the US both politically and economically and, if necessary, militarily. Disturbingly enough, the US has shown little interest in confronting the situation.
The information Menges includes in his book proving China's operational designs on Asia are as convincing as they are voluminous, too voluminous in fact to list completely here. But I will mention the most important ones:
-China has claimed Taiwan, the Paracels, the Spratleys, the Japanese Senkau Islands and South China sea as Chinese
-China is buying the ultimate in modern weaponry en masse from Russia
-China has formalized an official military alliance with Russia against America
-China has built a veritable forest of missile launchers astride Taiwan
-China has fired multiple ballistic missiles over and near Taiwan
-China has threatened US carriers to keep out of the Taiwan Strait (and our carriers have obeyed)
-China has threatened to take out all the US bases in Asia, invade South Korea and initiate strikes against the continental US should America intervene in Taiwan
-China has stolen America's most advanced nuclear secrets (we let the only Chinese spy we caught-Wen Ho Lee-go free)
-China is using its clout to turn the nations of the Third World against America
(no joke, China prohibited three central American nations from receiving the President of Taiwan at the last minute...and they obeyed)
-China now operates the Panama Canal
-China is building the world's largest container port in the Bahamas
-China & Russia operate an electronic spy base in Cuba
-China has jammed US propaganda transmissions to the Third World
If one looks at what we have to stand up to China --- half the military forces we had in 1992 / our presence in the Philippines reduced to zero / reduced forces in Korea (which we are now withdrawing south of Seoul) / a thin alliance with Taiwan which neither promises nor denies assistance and does not recognize Taiwan / 7 trillion dollars of debt / a weak economy / most of our heavy industry outsourced / low morale in the Army after two+ years of Iraq / a total split and alienation of NATO / general resistance to the draft --- one can see there won't be very much the US would do should China decide to invade Taiwan. It would not be surprising to see the US just sit back and watch.
But what the world fails to see, according to Menges, is that to the Chinese this would be further confirmation of American decline in Asia marked by the expulsion of Chiang Kai Shek, the expulsion of US forces from North Korea, the withdrawal of US forces from South Vietnam, the closure of US bases in the Philippines and the reduction of US forces in South Korea. What the world fails to see, according to the author, is that Taiwan would be only the first step in a wider Chinese expansion.
Is the US about to suffer a royal defeat in Asia?
Whatever happens, we must remember this: we were abundantly warned of what was coming.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
34 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sun Tzu, June 6, 2005
This review is from: China: The Gathering Threat (Hardcover)
Sun Tzu would have loved the current (and, for that matter, past several decades') strategy of the PRC and Russia. For the PRC, a de facto confederation with Russia constitutes a new incarnation of the Yuan Dynasty, but this time around, a dynasty with Han elites as its Eastern node. For Russia, this time around, they are an equal, not a vassal state, to a Far Eastern great power.
It is an interesting excercise to start with an assumption that the much lauded late 50s through early 70s "Sino Soviet Split" was a massive smoke screen and not bona fide. Assume this, and revisit each major event with any dependence on or relationship to the "split" accordingly. Such events are many and continue to the present day. Of particular note, in this regard, are geopolitics in South East Asia. If the Sino-Soviet Split was a ruse, then quite literally, everything you may have learned about Southeast Asian geopolitics since the 1950s is wrong!
Moving forward, consider the ramification of the world's largest combined military troop strength combined with the world's largest arsenal, when Russian and Chinese forces are coordinated or combined. The mother of all Axes .....
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
