Tuesday marks the Chinese New Year. Welcome to the Year of the Pig.
This year also marks the seventieth anniversary of the victory of China’s communists and the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Which means that we are just 30 years from China’s secret goal to supplant to the United States as the dominant power on the global.
China has been pursuing a strategy known to China hawks as The Hundred-Year Marathon, according to Michael Pillsbury‘s book which takes that strategy as its title. President Donald Trump has described Pillsbury as “the leading authority on China.”
In his book, Pillsbury describes China’s marathon strategy as one built around deception, playing on America’s view of China as a poor country and our elite’s belief that China can be democratized and reformed toward a market-based economy. But this play-acting is all an elaborate ruse intended to “mislead and manipulate American policymakers to obtain intelligence and military, technological and economic assistance” Pillsbury notes.
Chinese New Year is based on a lunar calendar. As a result, its date ranges from January 21 to February 20. The Spring Festival that the New Year begins lasts for fifteen days.
The pig is believed by traditional Chinese to be a symbol of good fortune, prosperity, and hard work.