China’s President Xi Jinping issued his first order of the new Western Year 2019. He has ordered the military to train themselves up and prepare for war. China’s New Year of the Pig 4717 doesn’t begin until February 5 of the Western calendar.

The South Morning China Post reported:

Xi’s speech was made at a meeting of top officials from the Central Military Commission (CMC), which he heads, and broadcast later on national television.

“All military units must correctly understand major national security and development trends, and strengthen their sense of unexpected hardship, crisis and battle,” he said.

At the meeting, Xi also signed off on the first military command of 2019, which will kick-start a year of enhanced military training and exercises.

China’s armed forces must “prepare for a comprehensive military struggle from a new starting point”, he said. “Preparation for war and combat must be deepened to ensure an efficient response in times of emergency.”

Xi has consistently pushed the PLA to boost its combat readiness since taking over as president and head of the CMC in late 2012, and that looks set to intensify through 2019.

Can you imagine telling any American to prepare for hardship and crisis. This comes just days after President Xi issued a not so veiled threat on reunification with Taiwan. Chinese people don’t attack Chinese people, but he wouldn’t rule out the use of force. Here is the subtitled version of that threat:

And, don’t forget that earlier this week, China’s space program landed an unmanned space ship on the dark side of the Moon. Victory Girls’ own Narcissi Craig wrote about that. You can read it right here.

Plus there’s that whole China building artificial islands in the South China Seas for years now. The islands strengthen China’s territorial claims, scare the neighbors and provide eyes on for watching activities in the area.

Guess whose fault all of this is? Hale yeah, it’s Donald Trump’s fault. Well, his acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan’s fault anyway. China would just be sitting back and making cheap stuff for sale in our vast megastores if it were not for President Trump. Riiiight?

A couple of days ago, after being taking the helm at The Pentagon, Shanahan had a meeting with staffers. We turn to the South China Morning Post for the report of what was said:

Patrick Shanahan, the acting US defence secretary, singled out China as a key priority in a “great power competition” on his first full day in his new role at the Pentagon on Wednesday, continuing a course set by his predecessor.

Jump:

“While we are focused on ongoing operations, Acting Secretary Shanahan told the team to remember China, China, China,” an anonymous defence official was quoted as saying.

The US accuses Beijing of a continuing pattern of military and economic espionage and has criticised China’s ambitious “Belt and Road” trade and infrastructure initiative as being a form of economic coercion.

See, if Shanahan hadn’t mentioned China at the Pentagon, Xi would not have started talking military build up. Except that he did it last year too. Last year, he told the military not to fear death. That’s probably epic motivation in the Chinese culture.

Here’s the 411. China stole technology to get to the far side of the moon. That’s scary. China is aggressive in building the artificial islands and keeping its neighbors off balance. Pumping up the military is feel good stuff for China.

What worries me more is Quantitative Easing. Which for the unfamiliar is kind of printing money. The U.S. has stopped Quantitative Easing (QE) which was rampant during the administrations of 43 and 44. Don’t even get me started on QE. It violates every good economic and Capitalist practice you can think of. China’s QE is legendary and they just pumped $218 billion more in cash into their economy because it was slowing again. China needs to back itself on up and practice sound fundamentals. Stop laughing. I know that’s not going to happen.

We are right to keep a keen eye on China’s activities.

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