American Leadership in the Asia-Pacific

American Leadership in the Asia-Pacific

- Maj Gen P K Mallick,VSM (Retd)

Those who are China watchers would be familiar with the name of Dr. Michael Pillsbury . He has been a China expert from USA. His book Chinese Views of Future Warfare published in 1998 has been read by people interested in China and are available in all libraries of Indian defence services.

His recent book The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower published in 2016 has been getting rave reviews.

Dr. Michael Pillsbury , presently Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Chinese Strategy, The Hudson Institute, Washington, D.C. gave a statement to U.S. Senate Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy on “American Leadership in the Asia-Pacific, Part 4: The View from Beijing” on 14 November 2017. His statement was very interesting. But what caught my attention was a statement of the fact of US informing China about our troop movement during 71 Operations.

He stated and I quote :

Two months after Zhou’s conversation with Kissinger, with Nixon’s visit just around the corner, Kissinger made the first of many covert offers to the Chinese. Unbeknownst to a public that would have been shocked to see the United States aiding and abetting the People’s Liberation Army, Kissinger gave China detailed classified information about Indian troop movements against Pakistan, as well as America’s “approval of Chinese support for Pakistan, including diversionary troop movements.” In return, Kissinger asked for Chinese troop movements on the Indian border to distract India from its efforts to invade and then dismember eastern Pakistan. China’s troops did not move, but that did not dampen American expectations.

Now there is nothing new in this. Uncle has been and will be doing these. See uncle’s refusal to access Hadley by our intelligence agencies. However, there is a sizable number of our strategic community who bend over backwards to support everything Uncle does and keep quiet about these issues.

Any reasons? Your guess is as good as mine.