War by the Chosen Few

By  Erick San Juan

For over two weeks now, the issue on China’s ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zone) is still very much the hot topic among analysts and observers of current events. Even to some netizens, various comments and sometimes harsh ones are still the trend.

There is nothing new about establishing an ADIZ for security reasons among countries especially the threatened ones under tensions created by disputes over territories. This time around the China-Japan dispute over tiny islands has created another chapter of tension especially that the mighty Uncle Sam is supporting Japan, its ally in the region.

But as an observer of events as they unfold, there could be other reasons why US and its allies (or even on the part of China) are making such a huge deal about this ‘animal’ called ADIZ.

From the point of view of some analysts, like Ric Saludo of Manila Times, in his article ‘Here we go again: China’s new gambit’, he wrote that one factor (among three factors) that some “analysts for the ADIZ move is the need for the new administration of President Xi and Prime Minister Li Keqiang to consolidate power and push sweeping economic reforms, which will inevitably generate opposition from powerful vested interests in the bureaucracy, local governments, and business groups. As with any external challenge, harnessing the armed forces to assert territorial claims against foreign nations lines up both the people and the military behind the government.”

In the midst of the availability of information on the internet via the social media networks, and by fearless bloggers, restiveness within China cannot be hidden to the rest of the world.

As reported by Willy Lam (Xi’s power grab dwarfs market reforms) he pointed out that the “recent Third Plenary Session of the 18th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee was expected to unveil major initiatives in economic liberalization. What has struck Chinese and foreign observers most is the weight that the leadership has given to enhancing state security, particularly centralizing powers in the top echelon of the party-state apparatus.

There are also doubts about whether Xi’s insistence on party leadership of economic policy would contradict the pride of place that Li seems to be giving to market forces. The plenum communique and resolution put a lot of emphasis on the fact that “comprehensively deepening reform must require strengthening and improving party leadership, and fully developing the core leadership function of the party in taking charge of the whole situation while coordinating [the needs] of different sectors”.

The documents also called upon “party committees of all levels to earnestly fulfill the leadership responsibility over reform”.

In the eyes of Chen Ziming, a famed theorist of reform, the much-anticipated Third Plenum has turned out to be more a question of power than of reform. “With Xi Jinping becoming the head of the two new committees [set up at the plenum], he has tightened his stranglehold on the reins of power,” Chen said. “We still do not know enough of Xi to tell what he is about to do. He can go down the road of [the reformist former Taiwan president] Chiang Ching-chuo or he could become another [Cambodian dictator] Pol Pot.”

The tortuous history of China’s reforms seem to show that the quasi-superpower has yet to undergo tougher tests before it can hit upon a formula that will satisfy both the rulers’ urge to control and the people’s desire to liberate their production forces.

The reforms that has to be implemented by the present Chinese leadership will undergo another phase in the lives of over a billion Chinese citizenry. This may take a long while. For the time being Pres. Xi has to confront issues confronting its almost equal, Uncle Sam through its allies- Japan and South Korea when it comes to the disputed area in the East China Sea. But beyond this, there are also economic issues that has to be resolved between Washington and Beijing soon.

The other side of the truth is out. According to Yu Hua (International New York Times, Dec.3,2013) in his latest article, “The Hijacking of Chinese Patriotism”, Yu believed that a ‘New China’ is in the offing. Just like China’s brewing war on Japan. He said that this fight has double meaning. “If we win , we get Diaoyu Island. If we lose, we get a ‘New China’. Meaning China which communist party is no longer the dominant power.

See how history is repeated by the ‘super elites’ without the complete knowledge of their leaders. Wars are all crisis by design to achieve their full control of the global governance. With the playing field controlled by a chosen few.