Drifting Toward a Catastrophic American Defeat | Opinion

The United States is drifting toward a catastrophic defeat.

I am talking about a defeat that will eliminate our freedom and permanently subordinate America to Communist China and its demands for absolute control and obedience.

You may think this vision is alarmist, but look at the Chinese Communist Party's control of Hong Kong, its abuses in Tibet and the Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang.

For that matter, look at the giant, wealthy American companies that already kowtow to the Chinese Communist Party's demands and adjust their language and behaviors to placate Beijing.

After pressure from China, Disney removed an episode of "The Simpsons" from its streaming services in Hong Kong over a reference to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Nike and Coca-Cola lobbied against legislation to ban imports of goods made with forced labor in China. JPMorgan Chase has expanded its business in China—despite known, serious data security and national security risks. And remember the turmoil when Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted out his support for democracy in Hong Kong? The NBA and various players went into a tailspin of shameless apology and censorship on China's behalf. It was disgusting.

Some American billionaires have made so much money in collaboration with Communist China that they prioritize padding their pockets over both American values and American national security interests.

But a defeated America would be subordinated to the Chinese Communist dictatorship. Our words, behaviors and institutions would constantly be molded to appease the paranoid dictatorship in Beijing.

Despite the extraordinary consequences of defeat, the American system is gradually drifting into a national security system that will clearly lose a major war with Communist China.

Don't take my word for it.

Major American military leaders are already sounding the alarm.

As The Epoch Times reported this month, U.S. Space Force Gen. David Thompson warned that, "China could overtake the United States in terms of space capabilities by 2030 if America doesn't speed up its development." The publication added: "The fact [is] that in essence, on average, [China is] building and fielding and updating [its] space capabilities at twice the rate we are."

Despite this growing threat in space, when Vice President Kamala Harris chaired the administration's first meeting of the National Space Council this month, there was not a single military issue discussed.

Beyond the rising vulnerabilities in space—and generals have reported that Russia and China engage the United States in space virtually every day—there is also a general crisis of our defense capabilities.

As Business Insider reported, "The U.S. military is changing the way it fights after it 'failed miserably' in a war game against an aggressive adversary who knew its playbook."

Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Hyten warned in a July conference: "Without overstating the issue, it failed miserably."

Hyten explained that the wargame, which simulated a conflict with China over Taiwan, involved an adversary that had studied American conflict and warfighting for two decades. As he put it, the fictional China "just ran rings around us. They knew exactly what we were going to do before we did it, and they took advantage of it."

The real Communist China has similarly studied our military strategies "with probably even more focus, with larger numbers," Hyten warned. As he put it, we have to make serious changes because our ability to overmatch rival powers including China has been "shrinking fast."

Admirals who have led the American Pacific military commitment have also been vocal about the failure of our current systems.

According to The Guardian, now-retired Admiral Philip Davidson, who was the 25th commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, said in March that a serious fight over Taiwan could come in the next six years.

"I worry that [China is] accelerating [its] ambitions to supplant the United States and our leadership role in the rules-based international order...by 2050," Davidson said.

When retired four-star Admiral James Stavridis was interviewed by The Asahi Shimbun in June about his new novel, 2034: A Novel of the Next World War, he reinforced the sense of growing Chinese capabilities:

When I began writing the novel, it was set in the middle of the century, roughly 2050. But the more I researched and the more I applied my analysis to the situation, the closer the date was set. Many of my friends, very senior officers in the military, both active-duty and retired, and senior policymakers, have complimented me on the book. Still, they have said, "You wrote a great novel, but you've got one big thing wrong. And that is the date." Many believe that the date of a U.S.-China confrontation will be sooner.

As a final example of American vulnerability, James Kitfield reported in Yahoo! News in March on a highly classified simulated conflict with China that started with a Chinese biological weapon attack, continued with a massive invasion disguised as a routine exercise and culminated with devastating missile strikes against our Indo-Pacific bases and warships, as well as Taiwan itself.

Needless to say, America lost that one, too.

The current National Defense Authorization Act simply does not address the scale of change we need to ensure America could militarily defeat China.

The Pentagon and intelligence community's distracting focus on creating a woke force, rather than a war-winning force, is further weakening America.

We need a full-blown investigation into the requirements for military victory over China—and a commitment to undertake every reform needed in defense, education, capital markets, supply chains, manufacturing and other areas to ensure American safety and freedom.

Anything short of a complete rethinking of our capabilities and the challenge of the Chinese Communist Party's systemic effort to become the world's dominant superpower may well lead to our defeat in a much shorter time than anyone now thinks possible.

Our freedoms and our physical safety are both at stake. This should become a major focus for 2022 and 2024.

To read, hear and watch more of Newt's commentary, visit Gingrich360.com.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.