China's establishment "knows intellectually that it should not go to war," but "emotionally, it wants to kill," and the United States should be putting its military on higher alert, author Gordon Chang said on Newsmax on Wednesday.
"We should be getting ready for imminent conflict," Chang, the author of "The Coming Collapse of China" and "The Great U.S.-China Tech War," said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America."
"I don't think it will happen but if we prepare, we will convince the Chinese that they will pay an enormous price should they go to war."
That means it's important for the United States to "establish deterrent," and that China needs to hear that President Joe Biden has changed his tone and is issuing "severe warnings from the White House," said Chang.
Biden must also make sure his warnings aren't contradicted by people like press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre or Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, as "it is now critical that we show that the United States is indeed united and is prepared to defend itself, its friends, and allies," said Chang.
"The Biden administration says, 'well they don't want conflict,' but the point is, the Chinese do."
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang's warned Tuesday that Beijing and Washington are on a course for "conflict and confrontation" if the U.S. doesn't change its actions.
Gordon said he thinks the official was echoing statements made by China's President Xi Jinping, and that "most of them are establishing a justification" for China to strike the United States.
"That's also true of the Chinese military, which is getting more power inside the Chinese political system. This is like Japan in the 1930s," said Chang. "We should be expecting war very soon."
The United States must also take the threats made by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's influential sister, Kim Yo Jong, that her country is ready for "quick, overwhelming action" against the United States and South Korea as their regular military drills expand seriously, said Chang.
"She's been influential for quite some time, and this warning about shooting down something over the Pacific should remind us of what the North Korean foreign minister said five years ago that the North Koreans would test an intercontinental ballistic missile tipped with a nuclear weapon that would detonate over the Pacific," said Chang.
Every nuclear country but North Korea has "detonated something" in the atmosphere, he added, "so we should expect the North Koreans to do this."
"They've been threatening this for a long time," said Chang. "They haven't done it but they do probably have the capability now to do it, so we should be concerned."
Chang on Wednesday also commented on the ongoing controversy over the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and said he expects to see more investigations on the matter.
"I expect the truth eventually will come out as it always does," said Chang. "It might take a little bit of time, but it's clear that this did have a lab origin."
Further, there needs to be more focus on what China did after the outbreak, "which was to lie about transmissibility," said Chang.
"They knew it was highly contagious," he said. "They tried to lull the world into not taking precautions. That's the real crime here."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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