Referring to Yoshiko Sakurai’s column in Shukan Shincho, this article argues that the first demand for compensation over the Wuhan virus crisis should be directed at the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship. It examines the People’s Liberation Army’s military moves amid U.S. confusion, China’s pressure on Taiwan, the Senkaku Islands, and the South Pacific, and the threat of Chinese funds acquiring strategic companies during the global economic crisis.

April 16, 2020
If people speak of compensation, compensation, then first of all, the entire nation must raise its voice as a demand against the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship.
The following is from Yoshiko Sakurai’s serial column published in Shukan Shincho, released today, under the title “China’s Strategy Targeting Important Companies in the Midst of Crisis.”
This essay, too, proves that she is a “national treasure” as defined by Saicho.
If people speak of compensation, compensation, then first of all, the entire nation must raise its voice as a demand against the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship.
Voices directed at the Japanese government are requests, and cannot be demands.
The mass media and politicians are trying to divert the eyes of the Japanese people from the fact that it was not the Japanese government that scattered this virus.
The result is the present state in which everything has been turned upside down.
In other words, it is the mass media and some politicians who have completely fallen into China’s strategy.
China’s movements are active.
It is clear that China sees the controlling power of the United States, both at home and abroad, as having waned, and that it now regards this moment as a favorable opportunity to expand its power.
The international community is in turmoil because of the novel coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.
In particular, on April 11, the United States became the country with the highest number not only of infected people but also of deaths in the world.
Of the eleven aircraft carrier groups that form the basis of the U.S. military’s overseas deployment, four have become unable to deploy because of contamination by the Wuhan virus.
It is the worst possible situation.
Among the U.S. aircraft carrier groups, the infection is most serious on the Theodore Roosevelt, which is anchored in Guam.
It is said that, as of the 10th, 474 infections had been confirmed among its 4,800 crew members.
Infections also occurred on the Nimitz, anchored in Washington State, on the Ronald Reagan, undergoing maintenance at Yokosuka Base, and on the Carl Vinson, undergoing maintenance in Washington State.
Captain Crozier of the Roosevelt felt a sense of crisis over the infection situation on board and reported it to his superior.
However, the letter in which he called for infected personnel to be isolated was reported by his local newspaper.
The movement of an aircraft carrier is a military secret, and because this resulted in internal information being conveyed to China, he was dismissed for violating military discipline.
This alone is enough to show disorder in military discipline, but on April 7, Acting Navy Secretary Modly resigned.
It is said that this was the result of Defense Secretary Esper reprimanding him for his harsh criticism of Crozier, including the remark that he was “stupid.”
The impression is that the confusion of the U.S. Navy had reached its limit.
A Jiji Press dispatch from Beijing reported that the Chinese Communist Party organ Global Times had written that, because of virus infections, the U.S. Navy’s ability to deploy globally had already suffered a severe blow, and that the U.S. military was finding it difficult to respond in the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait, and the South China Sea.
It is precisely at such a time that China goes on the offensive.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the PLA, orders all its soldiers to study The Art of War by Sun Tzu as required reading.
In its chapter on “Armed Struggle,” it is written as follows.
“Do not intercept an enemy whose banners are orderly; do not attack an enemy whose formations are imposing.”
When the enemy is firm, one must not attack.
At such a time, it is best to “wait for disorder in the enemy’s ranks, and wait for confusion among the enemy.”
A declaration to the United States.
It is precisely now, amid the disorder and confusion of the enemy, that is, the U.S. military, that the PLA is moving boldly.
Their actions from February to March were nothing less than a challenge.
First, on February 9, the latest stealth fighter “Jian” and the bomber “Hong” formed a formation, passed through the Bashi Channel between southern Taiwan and the Philippines, and moved out into the Western Pacific.
After emerging into the Western Pacific, four bombers in the formation went north and passed through the Miyako Strait between Okinawa Island and Miyako Island in our country.
On the 10th, a formation of Hong bombers again made a round trip through the Bashi Channel, while escort aircraft flew on the Taiwan side of the Taiwan Strait.
Was this a declaration of intent that Taiwan is part of China, and that Chinese military aircraft are free to fly wherever they wish?
The meaning of the PLA’s passage through the Bashi Channel is especially profound.
Former Chief of Staff of the Joint Staff Katsutoshi Kawano pointed this out.
“To pass through the Bashi Channel and fly freely over the Western Pacific means that the PLA has easily crossed the Second Island Chain and is coming to seize control of the South Pacific. Their purpose is to physically sever the cooperation among Japan, the United States, and Australia. For that reason, they are approaching the Solomon Islands, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Tonga, and other places in the South Pacific. The PLA is moving to control the Second Island Chain and to secure the Third Island Chain.”
The Third Island Chain is set right in front of Oahu and Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands.
It is a line that encloses almost the entire Pacific Ocean west of east longitude 165 degrees, which lies a little farther west of the International Date Line.
The Chinese Communist Party has raised the grand strategic goal of dividing the Pacific Ocean with the United States and ruling it in two parts, but in order to achieve this, it must first conquer Taiwan at its feet.
These series of military actions are for that purpose.
On February 28, a formation of PLA H-6 bombers again made a round trip through the Bashi Channel and entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone.
On March 16, a group of Jian fighters and an airborne early warning and control aircraft carried out an unusual nighttime exercise off southwestern Taiwan.
The PLA’s actions, carrying out unusual nighttime exercises in a form that encloses both the Taiwan Strait and the main island of Taiwan on the Chinese side, and flying freely through the strait extending to the south, are meant to show the world that “Taiwan is part of China.”
At the same time, they are declaring to the United States, which is in the midst of confusion, that China will dominate the South Pacific in the near future.
This is not someone else’s affair.
The number of Chinese government vessels entering the waters around our Senkaku Islands has increased by about 50 percent since the outbreak of the coronavirus.
Acquisition operations by Chinese funds.
When the whole world is suffering and in confusion because of the coronavirus from China, why does China, the country responsible for the calamity, try to change the status quo of the world by force?
Why does it intensify its offensive?
I think this is difficult for many gentle and straightforward Japanese people to understand, but both the Chinese Communist Party and the PLA regard stratagem as the highest and best weapon.
They are people who have studied, to the point where it has seeped into their bones, Sun Tzu’s Art of War, which theorized and systematized military methods based on stratagem.
They believe that practicing that theory of stratagem is the best way to win.
What China intends is the expansion of its power in every field.
Because of the Wuhan virus, the economies of each country have suffered tremendous blows, and it is even said that the economic downturn may be comparable to the Great Depression.
China is taking advantage of this situation, buying land whose prices have fallen and moving to acquire companies whose management has become difficult.
In response, Western countries have seen through the viciousness of China’s strategy and announced defensive measures to protect their own companies from acquisition operations by Chinese funds.
Masahiko Hosokawa, specially appointed professor at Chubu University, points out that in Western countries, in order to regulate investment in domestic companies by foreign capital, the strengthening of inward investment regulations and the establishment of state funds are proceeding one after another.
Because of the sharp fall in stock prices, the acquisition of all kinds of companies has become much easier than before.
Chinese funds are targeting that opening.
What is being targeted is a broad range of industries that support the foundation of national security.
Especially noteworthy are semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment, which are also clearly stated in “Made in China 2025.”
Semiconductors are indispensable to 5G, the fifth-generation mobile communications system over which the United States and China are competing for hegemony, and China’s manufacturing capability is still not high.
China says it will raise the self-sufficiency rate of domestic production of these items to 75 percent by 2030, and as one means to that end, it is watching for an opportunity to acquire, for example, Taiwan’s semiconductor contract manufacturer TSMC.
In order to prevent companies related to the very foundation of national security from being bought by China, the United States has established a fund of 500 billion dollars, about 55 trillion yen, and Germany has established one on the scale of 72 trillion yen.
What about Japan?
Because attention regarding the coronavirus is focused too much on livelihood support and unemployment measures, there is absolutely no sense of crisis that industries forming the foundation of national security could be bought wholesale by China.
This lack of a sense of crisis is itself the greatest crisis.