This article examines how the Chinese Communist Party and the PLA have intensified military actions and economic acquisition strategies amid the coronavirus crisis. Through the threats to Taiwan, the South China Sea, the Senkaku Islands, and semiconductor industries, it argues that Japan’s greatest danger is its lack of national security awareness.

April 20, 2020
It may be difficult for many gentle and single-minded Japanese people to understand, but both the Chinese Communist Party and the PLA regard deception as the highest and best weapon.
I am republishing, with partial additions, revisions, and paragraph changes, the chapter I posted on April 16, 2020, under the title, “This lack of crisis awareness itself is the greatest crisis.”
Official hashtag ranking: Palau, fifth place.
The following is from Yoshiko Sakurai’s serialized column, published in the Weekly Shincho released today, under the title, “A Chinese Strategy Targeting Important Companies in the Midst of Crisis.”
This article, too, proves that she is a “national treasure” as defined by Saicho.
If people are going to say compensation, compensation, then above all, the entire nation must first raise its voice as a demand against the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship.
A voice directed at the Japanese government is a request, and cannot be a demand.
The mass media and political operators are trying to divert the eyes of the Japanese people from the fact that this is not a virus spread by the Japanese government, but a virus spread by China.
The result is the present state in which everything is turned upside down.
In other words, it is the mass media and some political operators who have completely fallen into China’s strategy.
China’s movements are active.
It is clear that, seeing America’s controlling power at home and abroad as having declined, China regards this very moment as the perfect opportunity to expand its power.
The international community is in confusion 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 largest number not only of infections, but also of deaths in the world.
Of the eleven aircraft carrier groups that form the foundation 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 aboard the Theodore Roosevelt, now anchored in Guam.
Of its 4,800 crew members, 474 infections had been confirmed as of the 10th.
Infections also occurred on the Nimitz, anchored in Washington State, on the Ronald Reagan, under maintenance at Yokosuka Base, and on the Carl Vinson, under maintenance in Washington State.
The captain of the Roosevelt, Captain Crozier, felt a sense of crisis over the infection situation aboard the ship and reported it to his superiors.
However, a letter in which he sought the isolation of infected personnel was reported by his local newspaper.
The movements of an aircraft carrier are military secrets, and because this resulted in informing China of internal information, he was dismissed for violating military discipline.
This alone is enough to show a breakdown in military discipline, but on April 7, Acting Secretary of the Navy Modly resigned.
It is said that this was the result of Defense Secretary Esper reprimanding him for his severe criticism of Captain Crozier, including saying that he was “crazy.”
One gets the impression that the confusion of the U.S. Navy had reached its extreme.
A Jiji Press dispatch from Beijing reported that the Global Times, the organ of the Chinese Communist Party, had stated that “because of virus infections, the U.S. Navy’s ability to deploy globally has already suffered a serious blow, and it is becoming difficult for U.S. forces 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 People’s Liberation Army, the PLA, orders all soldiers in the armed forces to study Sun Tzu as required reading.
In the chapter “Military Struggle,” it is written as follows.
“Do not intercept orderly banners, and do not attack imposing formations.”
When the enemy is in firm order, one must not attack.
At such a time, it is better to “wait for disorder on the enemy’s side, and wait for the enemy’s commotion.”
A declaration to the United States.
It is precisely now, amid the disorder and commotion on the enemy side, namely 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 Taiwan’s southern side and the Philippines, and moved out into the western Pacific.
After entering the western Pacific, four bombers in the formation flew north and passed through the Miyako Strait between Okinawa’s main island and Miyako Island in our country.
On the 10th as well, a formation of Hong bombers made a round trip through the Bashi Channel, and 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 significance 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 is easily crossing the second island chain and coming to seize the South Pacific. Their objective is to physically sever the cooperation among Japan, the United States, and Australia. For that purpose, they are approaching the Solomon Islands, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Tonga, and other areas in the South Pacific. The PLA is moving to control the second island chain and secure the third island chain.”
The third island chain is set right under the noses of Oahu and Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands.
It is a line that encloses almost the entire Pacific Ocean west of 165 degrees east longitude, a little farther west of the International Date Line.
The Chinese Communist Party has set forth a grand strategic objective of dividing and ruling the Pacific Ocean with the United States, and to achieve that, it must first conquer Taiwan at its feet.
This series of military actions is for that purpose.
On February 28, a formation of PLA H-6 bombers once 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 conducted an unusual nighttime exercise southwest of Taiwan.
The PLA’s actions, conducting unusual nighttime exercises in a manner that encloses both the Taiwan Strait and the island of Taiwan on the Chinese side, and flying freely through the strait spreading to its south, are intended 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 sweep through the South Pacific in the near future.
This is not someone else’s problem.
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 trouble and confusion because of the coronavirus from China, why does China, the country that is the source of the calamity, try to change the status quo of the world by force?
Why does it intensify its offensive?
It may be difficult for many gentle and single-minded Japanese people to understand, but both the Chinese Communist Party and the PLA regard deception as the highest and best weapon.
They are people who have studied to the bone Sun Tzu’s Art of War, which theorized and systematized military strategy based on deception, and who believe that practicing that theory of deception 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 various countries have suffered severe blows, and the downturn is said to be comparable even 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 sovereign funds are proceeding one after another.
Because of the sudden fall in stock prices, the acquisition of all kinds of companies has become much easier than before.
Chinese funds are targeting precisely that point.
What is being targeted is a wide range of industries that support the foundation of national security.
Of particular note are semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment, which are explicitly stated in “Made in China 2025.”
Semiconductors are essential 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 its self-sufficiency rate in domestic production of these products to 75 percent by 2030, and as one means of doing so, it is watching with a tiger’s eye for an opportunity to acquire TSMC, Taiwan’s contract semiconductor manufacturer.
In order to prevent companies connected to the very foundation of security from being bought by China, the United States established a fund of 500 billion dollars, approximately 55 trillion yen, and Germany 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 the industries forming the foundation of national security may be bought wholesale by China.
This lack of crisis awareness itself is the greatest crisis.