| HN Mirror

I think China's intention to surpass the U.S. as the dominant superpower by 2049, the 100-year anniversary of the PRC founding, is absolutely crystal clear and without doubt. They have said they would like to accomplish this through military means if necessary, but focusing on economic and technological means/"warfare" -- their term not mine (see "Unrestricted Warfare" by PLA Colonels Liang and Xiangsui written in 1999 on the 8 year anniversary of the Gulf War; https://www.c4i.org/unrestricted.pdf) In fact, the paper clearly argues for going to war with a more powerful adversary by using network warfare prominently. Full disclosure: I have not read the entire paper, but enough of it to get the gist since they clearly state their goals and intentions.

Now, is China doing something America has not done? Absolutely not. Is it crazy for a country to want to become more powerful? Absolutely not. Is it wrong for a country to do so? I would argue not, since their first responsibility should be to their people, and usually -- not always -- a more powerful country on the world stage is better for the people of that country.

I believe in a globalized world, I am not a nationalist, and think if the world could truly come together, it would obviously be better for all of mankind. However, I am also an American, and although I don't love everything about my country by any means, I am going to pick and favor my country over a foreign one when that country is clearly an adversary. Does that mean I want harm to come to China? No. Does that mean I wish ill-will of the Chinese people? No.

And for what it's worth, I don't think anyone is unbiased and believe it is unrealistic to expect people to be. I think biases are as fundamental (in good and bad ways) to being human as walking on two legs is. Biases are critical to how our brain/memory works -- we have something like 180+ known cognitive biases (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases). I think the best thing we can do is recognize and acknowledge when we have bias, and factor that knowledge in to how we are thinking about a topic. For example, because of what I do for a living, if I see a positive story about the benefits of marijuana or crypto, I will initially be inclined to believe it may be true; the good ol' confirmation bias at work. But, I also usually try to stop myself, and think more critically of the information being presented, since I know that I am going to be inclined to have that bias towards the two topics. I feel as humans, that is the best we can do. Anyone who pretends to not be biased in any way whatsoever is lying. My father was a psychiatrist for 43 years, and I talked to him about this many times over the course of my life, and he agreed that he's never seen someone who did not have bias.