I’ll Fight Anybody, I’ll Fight Frigging Canada: A Selection from Bob Woodward’s Rage (2020)
“Mattis and Wei’s first meeting at a June 2018 conference for Asian defense ministers in Singapore had been followed by Mattis’s visit to Beijing’s Forbidden City later that month, where he was greeted with a night he thought made The Great Gatsby look like a cheap date. Now, six months later, Mattis decided it was time for a more candid discussion with his counterpart.
As they continued down the path at Mount Vernon, Wei told Mattis he was disappointed China had been disinvited in May from RIMPAC, a massive international naval military exercise held biannually in Hawaii, after China placed weapons in the Spratly Islands.
‘What do you expect me to do?’ Mattis asked. ’Two months before the biggest naval exercise in the world, you violate President Xi’s words to President Obama in the Rose Garden that you would not militarize the Spratlys. We remember words around here.’
In September 2015, Xi had said ‘China does not intend to pursue militarization’ of the Spratlys. China’s continued militarization of the islands was considered a violation of the Law of the Sea treaty, which China had signed, and a U.N. tribunal in 2016 ruled China had no evidence for its claim to ‘historic rights’ over large areas of the South China Sea.
‘Either your president lied to our president and actually intended to militarize the Spratlys,’ Mattis said, ‘or your military’s not obedient to civilian control. And either one of those worries me.’
‘Well, but General, they were defensive weapons,’ Wei replied.
‘General—General, come on. I may be wearing this’—Mattis pointed to his civilian suit—‘but we’re both generals,’ Mattis said. ‘I’ve been shot at by defensive weapons and offensive. I can’t tell the difference, okay?’
Wei smiled slightly as the translator’s words sank in.
The bottom line, Mattis said, is ‘I want to cooperate with you. I’m looking for ways to cooperate. But we’re going to confront you when you decide to screw with us.’
In Mattis’s view, the island military installations were part of a bigger Chinese plan: Shanghai would replace New York City as the center of world finance by 2030. Taiwan would be reincorporated as part of China. The only way for China to do that would be with intimidation or force.
The two walked further into the woods, Mattis’s lantern illuminating the path. They had walked for half an hour.
Mattis and Wei returned to Mount Vernon’s greenhouse for dinner. As they ate, the West Point choir sang. The cadets were in dress uniform with Mount Vernon arrayed behind them. Each song was introduced by a different cadet speaking Mandarin, which they were all studying.
Mattis hoped the show would be a personal memory for Wei.
Next the Marine Corps silent drill team carried out marches and a perfect rifle drill with no sound or oral cadence. The message was one of lethal coordination.
Mattis and Wei resumed their walk after dinner.
‘Those last guys,’ Wei asked. ‘Who were they?’
‘They’re Marines.’
‘They look very fit.’
‘They run three miles in 18 minutes. And they’re all at over 21 pull-ups.’
Mattis reminded Wei of the history the two nations shared.
‘Remember, the Americans have never tried to contain you,’ he said. ‘We want you to play by the rules. But the bottom line is: How are we going to manage our differences when two nuclear-armed superpowers step on each other’s toes? That is the fundamental question of this age. And the whole world is watching.’ He referenced the two world wars fought in the previous century: ‘Are we going to be as stupid as the Europeans, and twice in the 20th century light the world on fire? Or are we not going to do that?’
Mattis noted how the nations of the Pacific region had stood up to various forces over the past 200 years. ‘No one country is going to dominate the Pacific,’ he said. ‘History is very 100 percent compelling on it. If you think you’re going to take over the Pacific, you’ll just be the fourth who thought so,’ he said, referring to the European colonialists, fascist and militarist powers, and Soviet communists who had made attempts. The United States is not afraid to fight when necessary, he said.
‘Look if you want to fight, I’ll fight. I’ll fight anybody. I’ll fight frigging Canada, okay,’ Mattis said. ‘But I’ve had enough of fighting. I’ve written enough letters to mothers. I don’t need to write any more. And you don’t need to write them, either.’
Mattis knew that like Wei, most of China’s military officers had perhaps never experienced armed combat—and certainly had not in any major conflicts since China’s short-lived invasion of Vietnam in 1979.
Mattis wanted Wei to know that war would be extraordinarily tough on the Chinese.
‘I’ll just tell you,’ Mattis said, ‘the country I would most be willing to fight would be one whose entire officer corps had never heard a shot fired at them. War is so different from training that a shock wave will go through them. I’ve got—probably 80 percent of my officers have been shot at in one form or another. But I’d prefer not to put them through another war.’”—Bob Woodward, Rage (2020)
