Fantastic! Thanks for translating this work of high comedy!

My fave bit: "During the course of China's development, there have appeared a few problems are are entirely normal and are completely solvable."

Ah, the unintentional irony of stuff like this is truly world class!

I'd make a short list of the "problems" along with the obvious "solutions" -- but I'd lose my visa.

This is a great post Joel. I often find it funny that despite the Chinese media dismissing a lot of these claims as bogus, it never fails to describe such bogus claims in great detail. The article about a Chinese submarine 'stalking' a US aircraft carrier is a good example. Despite it being decribed by Chinese spokeswoman Jiang Yu as a bogus claim, the Chinese media still translated the article in great detail. It seems unusual that the media would give air time to claims that are bogus. Obviously, it is politically correct to dismiss any foreign claims about the direction of China's rise. However, I believe the Chinese media is desperate for information, especially about the military, which is very secretive. To report on a foreign article about China is very safe for the media organisation because the journalist won't get into trouble for reporting on China in a way that is different from the government's official line. The journalist can simply say that they are making it clear to the Chinese public about how foreigners have been slandering China's good name.

Great post. Wonder what other countries would even bother with an article on who has it in for them? Probably not very many. So why China?

i for one welcome our new chinese overlords.

Many thanks for your meticulous work translating this article. I notice this foreigner paranoia affect politics in Hong Kong, as many there who campaign for greater voting rights are often branded as "anti-China." Bureaucrats in Beijing are told by certain vested interests in Hong Kong that this or that reformer is actually a running dog of the British/Americans. The Central Government feels any talk of democracy in Hong Kong is part of a larger, sinister Western plot to overthrow the CCP. All this xenophobia has stymied progress in the former colony.

Still it was gratifying to read the quote above ("our fury can only hurt") which seems a little more willing to allow foreigner suspicions to roll off the back...

Well, CLB, plenty of Americans do tend to vilify al-Jazeera in a similar way, and the U.S. government subsidizes a competing network, al-Hurra.

The DOD Report in question was written by a rather large team throughout the US Government in which I played a tiny role -- Chinese tell me other Americans curry favor in China by "ratting" on who is promote China as a threat. I hope our field is not that ruthlessly competitive?

gee, why aren't Bokane and Zhang Yimou's names on that list? If I recall correctly they've *both* hurt the feelings of the Chinese People several times in the last year alone ;)

Seems like they ripped off the ideas from the book 中国威胁谁？：解读“中国威胁论”by 陆钢 and　郭学堂 (a book that I read this summer).

The book talks about all of the same people mentioned above, but is fairly complimentary and respectful of Michael Pillsbury in parts.

I sometimes feel that Chinese people in positions of authority are not in a very good position to persuasively argue against the “China Threat” because that entails talking about China’s strategic weaknesses in detail. A lot of the refuting of the “China Threat” that I’ve read in the Chinese media consists of saying: A) Here are the Chinese "haters", B) China is a developing country, therefore C) there is no threat.

@juhuacha

Did Bokane and Zhang Yimou advocate containing/sanctioning China econimically and millitarily?

Geez, I work so hard and I don't get on the list?

China paints itself as a threat with all of this talk about "recapturing territory" from pretty much all of China's neighbors, most recenty claiming 30% of NK as "inherenty Chinese since ancient times". You almost had to not pay attention to the China threat when every chinese person would could speak english voiced their support for the theory that SARS was caused by the CIA to kill Chinese people.

China is a threat because of its paranoid, desperate government and soon to be more of a threat because of tens of millions of the poorest men in the country not being able to find wives or even a girlfriend.

Oh Jesus, that was the best Christmas present since my childhood! Someone needs to get the rights to publish that - in Chinese and English - in Taiwan. People here would get a massive belly laugh out of being told things like that China poses no threat whatsoever and that it is a "benign" state.

If I were not mistaken. Were there once an anti-American sentiment raging in China during the whole pre-reform period? USA was then considered as the paramount enemy (among other imperialists) of the world (and of China of course).
"Proletariat of the World Get United!" and "Down with the American Imperialism!" were the two most frequently used propaganda slogans found on mainstream media, if not every day at that time.
China is becoming softer and behaves more like a gentleman now. But to most in the west, the same communist regime is still running the nation which was extremely agitative not long ago and the worst of all is that this same country is more-and-more becoming a real tiger (with a panda face).
The feelings of the west to a "face-changed" China are certainly very complicated, especially to those who know a little bit about the political ideology of communism.
The course of the communist party(s) is to turn the whole world "Red", as the rule of Marxism implies.
The Chinese communist elites might now think differently. Well, I dont know, it's just a wild guess based upon what they are now preaching inside and out for a harmonious society/world.
If the regime really meant what it said, then it is better not to act childishly like what Globe People had done. Time will tell.
There's an old Chinese saying says, "If you did a bad thing to other, others will do the same to you".
"An Eye for An Eye" might not help to improve China's image, and the west's too.

The world is full of self-centered so called thinkers. They have only one perspective, that is of cause their perspective, not anyone else's. As a result, they have never been right, in this case, about China. Take Gorden Chang, which of his predictions have come true? Ironically, he's probably done more damage to US public, than to harm China, if that was his intention. It's quite funny to see someone glee with "enlightenment" after reading Mr. Chang's article. It may be good entertainment, it even may satisfy his, let's just say, unspoken desires. But the fooled public probably is not in the US's interests.

The artilce may be a goverment propoganda, but there is truth in it, that the Chinese public attitude toward US media has been changing over the last decade. It seemed that US media has lost most, if not all, of its credits to Chinese people.

So maybe this is not as funny as you think.

Hey! I'm a chinese have few self-education,"No body is purity,the country as well. However, I'm Chinese, as a chinese I should maintain our country's fame and that's also our responsibility, only the immoral people , only the wicked people , only the foreign crow smear and demonize the great China development for their dirty aim.

I have to say there is truth to this to an extent but this article fails to realize why the West always looks down on China and the reason why this is, is endemic of Chinese society. Unable to press for change in government they have long since Tiananmen Square lived to accept the CCP. The west will look down on US Chinese people as long as headlines like 5,000 miners die this month continue. Because as long as the Chinese themselves dont care about their own people the West will not either. Realistically and statistically the way the CCP treats its own people a life of a Western foreigner is worth much more than that of a Chinese so why would the West treat you as a equal when you dont yourself? If China became a democracy lets say tommorrow, and then renounce threatening Taiwan and says it embraces human rights instead of the Chinese tradition of ruling with an Iron Fist and lack of accountability in government then in a few years the West will treat you as an equal. But when you continue to breed nationalism into your children through indoctrination to counter western influcences like democracy and saber rattler and boast about your military achievements and continue your defense posture on countering the US military then of course the West will continue to be alarmist as it should be. Your values are very different than that of theres, your military is based the idea of fighting the US on Taiwan, a democratic ally, and China is communist. Those are the simple as basic facts as to why the US looks at China as a threat in disguise.

There is clearly mistrust between some Chinese and Westerners. It is, in my opinion, very important for both sides to tolerate and accept each other. Both China and the U.S. are evolving, toward greater level of mutual dependence, economically, culturally, and politically. If both sides remain restrained, their differences will gradually fade away within a few decades, and mutual trust will then result.