This is because the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is losing grip on its population as tensions between Washington and Beijing continue to escalate. Relations between Beijing and Washington are worsening by the day as Donald Trump and Xi Jinping clash over a series of geopolitical, security and trading issues. And the weakening of citizens’ loyalty to the Communist Government makes it more likely for China to ignite a conflict with the US, according to foreign policy expert and author John J. Xenakis. Mr Xenakis compared the current tensions between the US and China to those taking place in 1941 between Tokyo and Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration, which he believes helped ignite the conflict in the Pacific during World War 2.
The author told Express.co.uk: “If you want to compare the current trade negotiations to historical trade issues with Japan, the correct analogy is 1941.
“Japan invaded China in 1937, and on August 1 1941, US President Roosevelt showed his displeasure by establishing an embargo on oil and gasoline exports to Japan.
“Three months later, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
“The CCP Government is highly dysfunctional and delusional and is losing control of many of its 1.4 billion people.
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“They’re already violently attacking Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and Falun Gong practitioners, out of a paranoid fear that any of these religious groups could trigger an anti-Government rebellion.
“So we’re headed to a world war with China with 100 percent certainty.”
Mr Xenakis argued the CCP is being weakened from within the country as the younger generation is no longer willing to obey its orders.
The Government is facing a growing number of rebellious acts rarely contemplated in the past decades.
The number of strikes taking place in China has grown from 184 in 2012 to 1702 in 2018, according to China Labour Bulletin, a non-governmental organisation based in Hong Kong.
He said: “The public is increasingly contemptuous of the CCP, and less willing to do what the CCP tells them to do, so they have to be forced to comply through these harsh control methods.
“Changes have been gradual, and have been building up.
“This is the nature of generational changes. One generation doesn’t replace an older generation overnight.
“A younger generation comes to power gradually, as the older generation retires.
“And as those gradual generational changes occur, the values of the younger generation gradually replace the values of the older generation.”
Mr Xenakis said anything could trigger a war between China and the US.
He said: “It might be triggered by the trade dispute, but the CCP is so dysfunctional and delusional that there are many other events and incidents that could trigger it.
“In my opinion, a more likely scenario that could start a world war could come out of China’s aggressive illegal fishing operations.”
China’s fishing fleet is getting increasingly aggressive at sea, entering national waters or ramming other country’s vessels.
In September 2018, US Coast Guard Commander Kate Higgins-Bloom wrote that “the odds that a squabble over fishing rights could turn into a major armed conflict are rising.”
Tensions between China and the US have increasingly grown since US President Donald Trump launched a trade war against Beijing, accusing the CCP, among other things, of theft of intellectual property.
China has also been accused of attempting espionage through tech giant Huawei, with Mr Trump barring US companies from using its telecoms equipment.