First of all why did you decide to write the book quick. This is my eighth book and in 2000 and wrote a book called the china threat that was called the china threat theory it was amazing that it predicted the emergence of a major threat posed by communist china ever since i wrote the book i tried to do another china book in every publisher that i approached we wont write another single topic. Why was that quick. I dont know with their concerns if it was cell then i dug in my heels to say its time to do it. Another threat from china as it is becoming greater back when the china threat was published. Your book is very timely. Let me ask you about the title. Deceiving the sky. Talk about the second half is very clear and understandable but where does deceiving the sky quick. They are steeped in ancient strategy and many people know of the famous strategist who comes from the warring states air. Theres also a book called the 36 strategies whose author is not quite clear but a compendium of military strategies that could allow a weaker power to destroy another power. The and they want the emperors to go to war arrange for dinner at the home of wealthy peasants and that he stepped in and it moved and realized it wasnt a house after all it turned out to be about so now he had to decide to go to war or return home so the point is you have to deceive the sky the legend is the emperor and the emperor was considered a godlike figure. So to deceive god to achieve your objective. This is a strategy that Chinese Communist party that specifically directed at the United States. And that you dedicated the book to the Chinese People before you go into continent content and why did you dedicate the book to the Chinese People quick. They need to be liberated from the communist regime. I remember doing a debate in new york city many years ago whether china was a threat and there was a businessman who came up to me after and said i have been doing business in china for 20 years ive never met a communist i was shocked and said you should visit the Peoples Liberation army museum that i have done and then youll see all the founding fathers. So it is important to understand this aspect that this regime is going after global supremacy in a way that had not done in the past. If you are before a chinese audience and you mentioned that you dedicated a book to them what would you say quick. There is a big myth in china that the Chinese Party is one with the people that a kernel came to visit at the Washington Times and said my beef is not with the Chinese People but the communist party of china and he said no no no there is no difference between the communist party of china and the people. That is a huge lie. One. 4billion people are enslaved under this system with as many as 93 Million Party members but for the most part they do not want that system. They have tasted prosperity and freedom and then to dedicate the book to free the Chinese People. Now at the beginning of the book you go into how you got it wrong and the site in 1990 wrong the Defense IntelligenceAgency Issued a report to minimize that china was a threat that then 20 years later you basically indicate Army Lieutenant general actually had indicated communist ideology had not changed at all as a motivating force for chinas ruling and the report that was issued then documented how and why china is a threat and in fact one data point was the 600 billion annually a stolen technology in intellectual property that is rather substantial. How did i get it wrong . And then 20 years later quick. I like to tell the story in the late nineties i was writing a story on the pla and the pentagon was more press friendly and would do give background briefings and dia gave the one that was vanilla but at the end of a kernel said the general would like to see you. He sat at the end of the table and told me that china was not a threat. I was very surprised. I would expect that but my question was why . He said because of their statement. This was astounding to me. I understand if they want to spend a reporter or civilian but for the top military Intelligence Officer to say the Nuclear Armed communist dictatorship which has miscible one miscible loan missiles capable of hitting our cities i felt there was a deception operation underway. Fastforward a couple years later i revealed in my earlier book one of the top analyst at dia was a chinese spy and passing information. I believe chinas penetration at that time giving false information. General ashley the current dia director has taken a major shift thats a reflection of overall Trump Administration policies. They have made a tectonic shift with the policy toward china to identify as a strategic competitor thats filtering its way throughout the government bureaucracy right now. With the advent of the Trump Administration back in decembe december 2017 when the National Security strategy was release released, does state that russia and china are strategic competitors. But you define china not only a strategic competitor but also a threat. Can you document to that in the book and elaborate on that. My view is the first step to find solutions whether for policies or anything else is to identify the threat. Without understanding that we can never solve the problem of china. So i look at this and said what is it that makes up the threat from china . I look at the weapon systems and intelligence operation and the financial warfare and it is quite an impressive array of threats it is an existential threat unlike any faced by the United States at any time in its history. The other dimension is with the Trump Administration the link has been made between american National Security and Economic Security which is a centerpiece that has been developed. To some extent you can say it has been there but with the approach its hard hitting and having a Significant Impact at a time when china itself concerned with its own economic problems so what you add not only a military component but also the economic dimensions quick. Euppercaseletter ive read chinese one an entire chapter on chinese warfare but i want to point out the idea the multifaceted threat from china. The reason the threat has become worse is that the United States has been engaged as a 40 year gamble strategically that began under kissinger when they were aligned under beijing with moscow and designed to help defeat the soviet union. The us bailed out struggling the communist party of china but after the fall of the berlin wall and the collapse of the soviet union december 71 there was never a revaluation so the engagement policy with china went on autopilot and never reevaluated it was a great legacy policy we have to continue. That was enormously damaging. For example the most concrete example is engagement carried through several administration of clinton it reached a high point at that point he allowed our National Weapons laboratories to have exchanges with china within a few short years the cia issued a conclusion through espionage china had obtained secrets on every deployed warhead in the us arsenal. That loss of secrets which has never been fully resolved by our investigative agencies but its clear that it happened was compounded when the chinese then spread Warhead Technology to pakistan then through the ache yukon Supplier Network proliferated that technology to north korea, iran, syria and libya. We found this out in 2003 when we took down the Libya Nuclear program among the documents turned over to investigators were chinese language documents how to design a small warhead missile. I cannot think of a greater damage to Global Security than this unfettered engagement that didnt understand the nature of the threat from china. That is a rather substantial point you are making. Dive into the economics as i was asking and develop that because that particular piece , you made very clear that threat that is posed given the kind of espionage activities taking place but also how is the economic instrument to be wielded to advance chinas own agenda quick. The chinese economic threat is that they try to use their economic power to diminish the United States and they are doing this bellamy first touch on the trump shift in policy. President trump and what he has done more than any other president he has aligned us National Security and Economic Security and that has filtered throughout the entire government whether Law Enforcement pentagon everyone looks at the chinese economic threat. The white house was very successful to highlight this threat. They issued a report with a stunning title called chinas economic aggression. There is a huge policy crisis at bureaucrat saying we cannot say aggression but if you read the report you understand why thats with a determined based on the estimates that between 250,000,000,600,000,000,000 annually of American Intellectual property and technology has been stolen by china. No nation can survive especially so heavily reliant on technology and innovation with that kind of theft. So getting back to the soviet cold war analogy, as you remember with the Reagan Administration did something to the soviet union basically said we will block western technology to moscow. It was a major contributing factor in the demise of the soviet union. Trump is basically doing a similar thing toward china and says okay lets see how great the chinese economic miracle is once America Technology is blocked off. There has been the unprecedented level of policies designed to prevent the flow of technology and in fact what i point out the policy got launched during a trump tower meeting with the president who was newly elected when he met with the top exact one executives of Silicon Valley and their main concern was how do we stop the flow of american knowhow from china to china and thats where the gun. Do you feel chinas preparatory economic policies will be thwarted as a result of this. Policy approach . Do you see as having the impact quick. I see it very much so. With a financial warfare i point out that in addition to the tariffs posed by the Trump Administration which are having an impact, china has taken a different attack they are going after American Capital markets through those investments to raise money as well as influence policy. For example take investments by the california personal Retirement Fund in chinese companies. Those funds could say dont sanction china because our Retirement Funds are invested now this is happening on a large scale im happy to say within the past week the administration has announced they will take steps to try to curb this unregulated Capital Market which again the United States is the unprecedented leader of all Capital Markets. The administration has been quite vigilant on this issue and the negotiators also have those goals and objectives to correct the predatory actions as part of the negotiations. Light heiser and menu chin are at the forefront. What about president xi . What are the goals and objectives quick. Up and tell his ascension to the upper reaches of power that took place around 2012 and 2013, the chinese strategy that sees the collapse of the soviet union, their idea is lets be friends to the United States i heard the dia director say they are not a threat and the reason is because president shes policy was by time and build capabilities. That has changed dramatically under president xi has announced his goal is the chinese dream and in my view it is a communist party of china nightmare where china seeks to take its rightful place as the sole superpower in the world. Not that they just spread their own power in their communist system with predatory lending practices but it also means in order for them to achieve that, they have to go after the United States and weaken their main enemy to have those unfettered policies of china to said the opioid and financial into the United States with those tens of thousands of deaths through the crisis. Host isnt it true that president xi himself is striving rather successfully to solidify his own power base and has done that through the vote which basically says he is leader for life. He also has done that in articulating the power of the communist party talking about the revitalization of the communist party. Do you see him in any capacity to be vulnerable quick. He has consolidated power since 2012 it has been carried out through the auspices of anticorruption. It is a cover for power consolidation he has instituted an unprecedented purge not just middle or lowlevel officials but some of the most senior officials of the communist part party. Anyone perceived as a arrival in the pla or potential rival is being eliminated. This has created great instability within china because the way the communist party is structured very much like a group of mafia families where each mafia addon has an outreach and a network. By purging some of these families, it is creating some type of internal opposition to him. That said he has strengthened the internal Security Apparatus in china which is merely the administrative Public Security. There numeral numerous security organizations all of them modeled after the soviet kgb which is a Political Police and Intelligence Service serving dual functions of intelligence and internal security. One of your chapters is entitled the coming space war with china and in fact you even discussed the prospect of war itself and to speculate this cannot be ruled out. Please talk about that and then lets discuss Graham Allison in his announcement that the path we are on that war is likely. Yes. The military threat from china is based on what the chinese call asymmetric warfare. This goes back to the warring states were a weaker power does not try to confront the enemy had on but its vulnerabilities in spatial capabilities cyberis another but space warfare is a real vulnerability for the United States because we are so dependent on the multitude of satellites for communications, finance, militay , navigation and china has understood that to develop an array of weapons. This is a Nonfiction Book but i included a fictional scenario how china could launch a worldwide pearl harbor missile attack and in the first phase would be knocking out key Missile Warning satellites because the us operates with very good eyes of the sky to pletter to pick up heat signatures anywhere on earth. Through attacking those satellites to destroy as many as two dozen us military could be crippled in its ability to function and we are the sole superpower right now but china is working to diminish the capability. What about Graham Allisons thesis quick. I dont mention in the book because i dont think it is a valid assessment. I dont think it is inevitable. The notion going back to ancient times that i declining a rising power will automatically go to war this is been a major theme that china is the rising power in the world and is working to rise its power but the United States must diminish but we dont hear is how china is trying to diminish the United States. But i say the United States has definitely will be the sole superpower and i agree with president s trumps strategy of pate of peace through strength through the Reagan Administration that says if you want to prevent a war make sure the other side doesnt miscalculate and stumbling into a war thats why i disagree with the Graham Allison strategy. You have a number of very interesting quotations. Each chapter has a quotation for example on space you have a chinese kernel to say to meet the requirements of deceiving the United States the pla shed have assassins weapons with space attack capabilities. China has that capability today. You said you have a fictional scenario but you do talk about the fact it does have that capability today. This is an area where china is ahead of the United States. The United States military recently set up a brandnew Space Command guess what . They have no weapons that we know of. China on the other hand has an array of very lethal and capable anti satellite weapons. We first learned this in 2007 when china tested a ground launch missile called direct ascent th