Despite China presenting itself as a peaceful and harmonious panda that just seeks a reasonable place in this world, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) actually is an aggressive and hostile dragon that seeks America’s demise. It is increasingly hostile to its neighbors, it is aggressively expanding its influence in Latin American & the Caribbean, and it is conducting numerous hostile acts against its own people and Americans in the US from activities that range from influence operations to harassment and kidnappings by so called “Chinese police.” If this is news to you, I suggest you google it, or better yet, learn more in my new book, The Dragon Slayer.

It is vital that you understand the following: 

“A dragon is never a friendly rival, but a monster that must be destroyed. As the knights of old are fabled to have slayed the dragons that endangered their kingdoms, so too must we slay the dragons of our day. This is a call to become a Dragon Slayer in this century. Since our enemy seeks our destruction, we must rise to the challenge to protect our freedom, security, and future as a nation.”

– The Dragon Slayer, Robert Peale, 2024

But, how did we get here? The short answer is that we are being manipulated and played by an enemy that favors deception in all things. 

According Commander Mark Metcalf, US Navy (Retired), for the Chinese military, Sun Tzu’s “Guiding principles allow the warrior to develop methods to turn deception into a ‘magic weapon’ that a military strategist brings into play through initiative to vanquish the enemy and gain victory.” – Deception is the Chinese Way of War, Mark Metcalf, 2017

“This is largely the problem for the US. We do not understand the extent to which China is our enemy. Even if we do not wish to be China’s enemy, they have decided that we are theirs. This lack of understanding has hamstrung our efforts to prepare for potential conflict with China and to counter the growing threat of increased Chinese aggression and encirclement. Often our senior leaders believed China’s propaganda that they were not a threat to the US because they said they were not. Many have taken this view whether they were paid to do so or due to their stupidity.”

– The Dragon Slayer, Robert Peale, 2024

This failure to understand our enemy is only compounded by the fact that we actually have even been tricked into helping China become the superpower it is today. One China expert, Michael Pillsbury, documents this in his book, The Hundred-Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower. Pillsbury describes the reasoning and motivation behind this in the following:

“Many of us who study China have been taught to view the country as a helpless victim of Western imperialists—a notion that China’s leaders not only believe, but also actively encourage. When I was studying for my PhD at Columbia University in 1967, my political science professors emphasized how the West and Japan had mistreated China, with the implication that my generation needed somehow to atone for this. Many of our textbooks contained similar arguments.” 

“This perspective—the desire to help China at all costs, the almost willful blindness to any actions that undercut our views of Chinese goodwill and victimhood—has colored the U.S. government’s approach to dealing with China. It has affected the advice that China experts offer to U.S. presidents and other leaders.”

– The Hudred-Year Marathon, Michael Pillsbury, 2016

He goes on to describe this grievous mistake and that China did not become the peaceful and democratic ally we had hoped for. 

“For decades, I played a sometimes prominent role in urging administrations of both parties to provide China with technological and military assistance. I largely accepted the assumptions shared by America’s top diplomats and scholars, which were inculcated repeatedly in American strategic discussions, commentary, and media analysis. We believed that American aid to a fragile China whose leaders thought like us would help China become a democratic and peaceful power without ambitions of regional or even global dominance. We underestimated the influence of China hawks.”

“Every one of the assumptions behind that belief was wrong—dangerously so. The error of those assumptions is becoming clearer by the day, by what China does, and, equally important, by what China does not do.”

– The Hudred-Year Marathon, Michael Pillsbury, 2016

Another example of top US officials being deceived and used by China to support their ascension to increased national power can be seen in Bill Gertz’s book, Deceiving the Sky: Inside Communist China’s Drive for Global Supremacy. In the following passage Gertz documents his utter shock to learn that even Pentagon officials had been deceived by China because they had taken the CCP at its word that China was not an enemy. 

“Twenty years ago in 1999, I sat in a windowless briefing room at the Pentagon’s outermost ring inside the offices of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). At the end of the conference table was the DIA director, an Army lieutenant general. After a few minutes, he made an alarming statement: “Bill, China is not a threat.” I asked the three-star general why he believed that. The general, who cannot be identified by name under Pentagon ground rules, replied that the Chinese were not a threat because their leaders declared they were not a threat. I was astonished. That kind of China-is-not-a-threat rhetoric was common at the time from civilian policymakers, and even civilian intelligence officials who for years aggressively played down the danger from what remains a nuclear-armed Communist dictatorship in Beijing. What was surprising was hearing this line of thinking from the nation’s most senior military intelligence official, an influencer who, from his position, exercised enormous power over the defense and national security policies of the US government and military.”

“The experience was proof that regarding the People’s Republic of China, the highest levels of the US government were uniformed about the threat posed by Communist China and had adopted false ideas and concepts about its system and activities. How a senior military leader with multiple stars on his shoulders honestly believed a state controlled by a Communist Party steeped in the use of strategic deception and armed with nuclear weapons capable of reaching American cities was not a threat truly was shocking.”

– Deceiving the Sky, Bill Gertz, 2021

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the CCP understand what Sun Tzu said so long ago:

“Warfare is the Way [Tao] of deception. Thus although [you are] capable, display incapability to them. When committed to employing your forces, feign inactivity. When [your objective] is nearby, make it appear as if distant; when far away, create the illusion of being nearby.”

– The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China, Ralph D. Sawyer, 1993

This is why we need a new generation of Dragon Slayers to wakeup and take action to defend America from the Chinese threat to our future. If we want to continue to live as a free, prosperous, and independent nation, we must understand our enemy in order to expose their deceptions and end their ability to conduct hostile acts.

To learn more about how we got here and how you can make a difference to stand against China and its military strategy of total war/unrestricted warfare, read my new book, The Dragon Slayer: A Primer on Countering China’s Strategic Encirclement of America. 

Key Features:

• Unveils China’s Malicious Intent: Understand how China’s strategic encirclement of the U.S. poses an unprecedented security threat.
• Global Scope: Explores China’s growing influence in key regions including the Pacific, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
• Historical Context: Provides a thorough overview of how the U.S. arrived at this moment in history and the critical facts surrounding China’s rise.
• National Security Focus: Offers clear insights on how the encirclement affects American security both domestically and abroad.
• Action-Oriented: Calls for urgent responses to counteract the threat and protect the nation’s future.

It is vital that you become a Dragon Slayer to stay informed, speak out, and support others.

For more on China Policy, International Affairs, & Strategic Defense sign up for the Dragon Slayer Newsletter at RobertPeale.com and subscribe on X today.

BLUF: Don’t let Pandas on the Bridge or fall for their Deception. 👇🏻