Sarah Palin was right #15: China's Military Rise Is Cause for Concern

The Week is not what anyone would call a Palin-friendly website. It features articles written by Democrats (Bob Shrum), Vichy Republicans (David Frum), and loony tunes Berkeley economists (Brad DeLong: "We can afford a second stimulus").

So when The Week's Tish Durkin authored a piece which would agree with some of Sarah Palin's remarks made about China, it was a foregone conclusion that said agreement would have to be presented as a backhand compliment. The article contains the usual Palin smears so typical of what we have come to expect from the fear and loathing set. But the elitist writer could not deny that Sarah Palin's most important points about China were absolutely correct:

In raising the specter of U.S. conflict with China, Palin was not, in the main, wrong.

For a compelling discussion of just how not-wrong, treat yourself to China: Fragile Superpower by Susan L. Shirk, the Clinton administration's deputy secretary of state for U.S.-China relations.... Or read the bulk of expert analysis on China from 1949 to the present... But when considering the possibility of hostilities erupting in the region, China hands tend to have more in common with Palin than with her detractors.

And why not? Raise your hand if you disagree with any of the following statements:

China is governed by a cadre of autocrats who, for all the positive development they have achieved in the past three decades, act first and foremost in the interest of their own political survival, which interest may or may not overlap with the calming of any given international crisis.

[...]

Even according to its official, famously low-ball budget, China's military expenditures have more than doubled since 2000; the growing stockpile of conventional short-range missiles alone is enough to shake up the neighbors.

[...]

These potential threats include: a violent succession scenario in North Korea; disputes over the territorial divisions of the East China Sea, with its estimated 7 million cubic feet of natural gas and some 100 billion barrels of oil; disputes over the islands of the South China Sea, through whose shipping lanes travel some 80 per cent of the crude oil consumed by Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea; an existential standoff with Taiwan, which the Chinese see both as a political birthright and a strategic necessity—regardless of whether the Taiwanese have a Beijing-friendly president, as at present, or not.

That's the case for trepidation.

[...]

There is every reason to hope for [restraint by China]. But there is absolutely no reason to assume any of it. That's the truth — even if Sarah Palin happens to be telling it.

The elites just can't summon up the intellectual honesty to say that they were wrong about Sarah Palin. To do so would be to admit that she may know a thing or two about foreign policy. As Governor Palin of Alaska, she was official host to a number of trade representatives from around the globe, was a member of the Northern Forum, addressed and hosted Arctic energy summits and was advised on strategic military matters by Admirals and Generals. Even when the elites have to admit that the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate is right, they do it like petulant children. "Yeah, she was right, but..."

Related: Washington Times: "Obama loosens missile technology controls to China"

- JP