China’s Xi Jinping likes getting the world stirred up with military confrontation. Perhaps that’s why he wore his Mao Zedong high-collar suit, channeling the aura of the 1949 revolution, to the first major military parade in China since 2019.
With him stood Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, marking the first time in 66 years that this terrible trio of leaders of China, North Korea and Russia have gotten together.
And did you catch the hot mic moment with Xi and Putin, both 72, groaning like the ‘Grumpy Old Men’ they are about how ’70 is just a child’ and wondering if organ transplants can enable immortality? Kim, just 41, stifled a grin. Who knows who will have the last laugh in that trio. They are not my picks for immortality.
Xi, Putin and Kim had their serious dictator faces back on as they watched as China’s People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force – teacher’s pet to Xi – roll their DF-5C intercontinental nuclear missiles down the streets of Beijing. They also showed off a new variant of their DF-26D medium-range missile. They claim it can hit U.S. ships and aircraft carriers or the island of Guam.
Dealing with this trio is a challenge like no other. And it’s all in a day’s work for President Donald Trump. Trump said he’s not concerned and called them out with some choice trash-talk, posting on Truth Social about their rather obvious efforts to ‘conspire’ against the U.S.
The China-Russia military alliance is the single biggest danger the U.S. military has ever faced.
However, Xi’s plan for world domination is showing some fault lines. Xi has scrambled for 13 years to build up China’s military. His strategy is based on loading up with missiles, missiles and more missiles. Yet looking at what rolled down the streets in Beijing, the fact remains that China can’t outpace U.S. military technology, despite decades of espionage, copycat designs and heavy military spending.
The U.S. has some far superior systems. I’m talking about the new B-21 stealth bombers and F-47 sixth-gen fighters, for example. China has no true equivalents.
The U.S. also has new ways to deal with China’s missiles. The U.S. Space Force’s new Hypersonic and Ballistic Track and Surveillance System will use a constellation of satellites in low earth orbit, cued to use a medium field-of-view, to track China’s hypersonic missiles as they maneuver. Innovations like this nix China’s gains.
The parade showcasing ‘multi-domain’ technologies that might be used during an invasion of Taiwan was underwhelming. China’s laser gun on the truck, the unmanned surface vessels and even the big underwater drones are nothing remarkable. The U.S. has all that. Just check out the U.S. Navy’s massive Orca drone, which can lay seabed mines all by itself. Or the U.S. Army’s high-energy laser tests against drone swarms at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, this summer.
Xi needs his thug friends to challenge the U.S. and allies. Sadly, China allows Putin the option of refusing to talk about ending the war in Ukraine. The warm welcome given to North Korea showed that China is eager for Kim’s rising nuclear capabilities to provoke the U.S. and Pacific partners. Kim toured a solid-fueled missile facility before boarding the train to Beijing and North Korea is working on nuclear submarines as well. That’s scary.
Trump’s nonchalance in dealing with this terrible trio is possible because the administration is taking action every day to shore up America’s power and oppose the China-Russia alliance.
In the Oval Office Tuesday, Trump flexed American power with two very different announcements.
First, U.S. forces blew up a Tren de Aragua drug runner’s fast boat with an anti-ship missile. The strike opened a whole new chapter in the drug war.
Tren de Agua is a designated terrorist organization, so in tactical terms, this is no different from striking ISIS or Houthi terrorists in the Middle East. Believe me, the U.S. Navy has plenty more anti-ship missiles and it’s high time to clean up the Western Hemisphere. Trump’s predecessor James Monroe, famous for the Monroe Doctrine, would be proud.
Next, Trump announced that U.S. Space Command will be headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama. U.S. dominance in military and commercial space is essential for the economy and for global power; that’s why Trump created the United States Space Force as the sixth military branch in 2019.
Elon Musk’s Starlink and now Amazon’s Kuiper are muscling China out with thousands of satellites in low-earth orbit to deliver broadband, and backstop U.S. military freedom of action in space. And the Space Force is key to the Golden Dome defenses for the U.S.
Finally, no military parade can cover up the fact that China, Russia and North Korea all face economic problems. China’s growth rate has halved in recent years and tariffs threaten the continued expansion in global markets that is Xi’s top economic priority. Russia is running on defense production and oil sales, and North Korea has no discernible economy apart from its trade with China.
Those other leaders in the parade photo had better not be looking to do more business with the U.S. anytime soon. The larger economic reality is that the U.S. is winning the AI race and, with concerted effort, can shut the door on China’s attempts to dominate AI.