President Donald Trump is arguably provoking China to fire the first shot so that America will have good reason to declare war on China and put an end to this number one enemy of America once and for all, just like Franklin Roosevelt and his administration, who, according to Stinnett (2010), deliberately provoked and allowed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to bring USA into World War II, as anti-war voices were strong domestically. History repeats itself. Dictators, out of megalomania, often make fatal mistakes at the wrong time in the wrong place. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is a case in point. Xi Jinping, provoked by the tariff-man, and pressurized by domestic discontent, may make the fatal move of attacking Taiwan or American fleets in the South China Sea, thereby giving America the excuse to "exterminate all the brutes".
Recent Omens of War
Today (May 6), 2 US warships sailed near islands claimed by China in the South China Sea, the US military said, in a move that could anger Beijing at a time of tense relations between the world's two biggest economies. On May 5, President Trump tweeted that on Friday tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods will increase from 10% to 25% and the US will slap an additional $325 billion worth of Chinese goods with a 25% tariff. On 4 May, Randall Schriver, the leader of Asia policy at the US defense department, accused China of jailing around 3 million Muslims in "concentration camps". The term is normally associated with Nazi Germany but Schriver defended his use of it as appropriate. What else should the civilized world do to Nazis but perish them? And in the past year, hundreds of Chinese professors, researchers and scientists have been denied long-term visas or short-term visas to visit the United States.
China as America's Number 1 Enemy
In April 2018, Philip Davidson, US Fleet Forces Commander, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that only an armed conflict could stop China from controlling South China Sea. Then-CIA director Mike Pompeo said, in July 2017, that Beijing poses the largest threat to US power, noting that the Chinese see "themselves as a rival superpower" and are on a mission to "reduce the relative power of the United States vis-à-vis their own country." Michael Pillsbury's (2015) Hundred-Year Marathon argues that China has a secret plan to take the place of USA. Trump calls Pillsbury the leading authority on China.
Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor
Robert Stinnett's (2001) Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor claims that Franklin Roosevelt and his administration deliberately provoked and allowed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to bring the United States into World War II, as anti-war voices were strong domestically. Stinnett argues that the attacking fleet was detected by radio and intelligence intercepts, but the information was deliberately withheld from Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, the commander of the Pacific Fleet at that time.