Dmitri Alperovitch is a member of a national security think tank. He is also cofounder of Crowdstrike, one of the world’s largest cybersecurity companies. Alperovitch believes China is preparing for a 2028 invasion of Taiwan. He provides the data that leads him to this conclusion.
Alperovitch suggests several strategies to prepare for this eventuality…and perhaps dissuade China from taking this world order destabilizing step. But we have to act quickly!
Alperovitch believes China plans the Taiwan invasion as a result of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Alperovitch’s analysis of the U.S. and NATO response to Putin’s actions only gives China incentives to prepare to conquer Taiwan. One way China might be deterred from their Taiwan plans is if Ukraine “wins” against Russia. If the U.S. and NATO can provide the weapons and resources for the Ukrainians to stop the Russian advances into their territory, China may re-think their Taiwan plans.
So far, both the U.S. and NATO have not done a good job providing the Ukrainians with the resources they need to resist Russian aggression. That leads China in believing if they attack Taiwan, the U.S. and its allies in the Pacific won’t support Taiwan enough to stop the Chinese invasion.
My favorite chapter in World on the Brink is Chapter 4: They Are Weaker Than We Think. Alperovitch’s analysis of Chinese politics and culture show significant problems. The major problem is China does not have advanced computer chips that make Western military weapons so sophisticated and and powerful. That could be a turning point in an attack on Taiwan if the island nation has better weaponry. Chinese leaders know that a long war could be a threat to their Government.
Alperovitch calculates that if the U.S. can keep its allies united, China will continue to procrastinate with their military plans. Also, if the U.S. can stay focused and avoid the gaffs committed in the past year with failures to supply Ukraine adequately, disaster might be avoided. What do you think? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Prologue: A Dispatch from the Future 1
Introduction 13
Part I Cold War II, a New Era
Chapter 1 The Road to the Brink 31
Chapter 2 Distracted and Disoriented 67
Chapter 3 The Taiwan Dilemma 95
Chapter 4 They Are Weaker Than We Think 139
Chapter 5 We Are Stronger Than We Think 169
Part II A Game Plan for Victory
Chapter 6 Step One-Enable Innovation 191
Chapter 7 Step Two-Defend Innovation 257
Chapter 8 Step Three-Say Yes to Our Friends 299
Chapter 9 Step Four-Say No to Distractions 329
Conclusion 353
Acknowledgments 363
Source Notes 367
I have a special place in my heart for Taiwan, having taken my R&R there in 1968! I also think that Biden would never provide the toughness and leadership to turn away aggressors and having him in office would be a disaster in the event of Chinese aggression!
Bob, Alperovitch is convinced Chinese aggression against Taiwan is a Done Deal. The question is: when…
Meanwhile, Drumpf is a collaborator with fascists worldwide, definitely Putin and Xi, among the lesser “lights”…as is his party these years…as I live with a Taiwanese American woman, whose parents were immigrants getting away from then-fascist Taiwan, the currently democratic Taiwan being taken over by increasing fascist China is not desirable at all…and Donnie will do squat about it, for a range of bad reasons. Meanwhile, China is trying to flex its muscle against all its neighbors, which might not work out as well as they’d like.
…increasingly fascist China, that should be (or shouldn’t be, but is)…
Seems like a rational analysis, but when was U.S. foreign policy ever rational?
Fred, Dmitri Alperovitch isn’t a Government guy. He’s a think tank guy. But, it would be a Good Thing if the U.S. State Department would listen to him.
Sounds as if China is hoping that Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz could replicate themselves endlessly.
Jerry, China loves “useful idiots” like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Gaetz and Jim Jordon and all the fools in the House.
And Trump, as much a coward as a fan.
This comes pretty far down on my list of worries: just getting through this election with a viable candidate is on my mind. And neither candidate really strikes me as viable any longer. And my next worry would be climate change, which is getting short shrift except from young activists.
Patti, plenty of pundits think the Election is over. Trump will win because of the assassination attempt.
I’m really not sure why this seems so inevitable to you, or Deb…it was a pretty half-assed attempt. FWIW, the SS claims that they had word that the sniper had been shot and there was no evidence of any others before they let Trump stand up. Maybe not so, but maybe so. The whole thing does seem like a real shit-show.
Nobody not already in the Trump cult is going to see him as a hero for getting his ear pierced, particularly if his endless calls for violence are noted at all competently, which is, sadly, probably beyond most of the corporate “news” media.
Unless he has money on the table, I predict Trump will be fine with China invading Taiwan.
Jeff, Trump will claim he’s a friend of Xi Jinping just like his pal, Putin.
And yet Biden is the one taking millions from China!
Bob, I thing I learned from WORLD ON THE BRINK is that China is trillions of dollars in debt! I had no idea China was in precarious financial straits!
What millions from China do you refer to, Bob?
Trump has already claimed that Xi is “good” people. As why would DT, being who he is, not do so?
There is not, and has never been, a single good excuse for the Electoral College to exist, and ridding ourselves of it would not be that difficult. Seems unlikely we would ever have had several of our worst presidents without it, not least rumpled Trumpkin.
The very fact that some small figure of voters in heavily-split states can overcome the majority of votes nationally, or that an often huge amount of votes in each state are simply discarded, is a crime against all of us. But it does let the big parties luxuriate in the fantasy of truly “safe states”…
Todd, for the Democrats, it’s all going to come down to Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. If the Blue Wall doesn’t hold, Trump wins.