NEO – Building an anti-China Alliance is the Last US Bid for Political Survival in Asia & the Pacific
by Salman Rafi Sheikh, …with New Eastern Outlook, …and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a research institution for the study of the countries and cultures of Asia and North Africa.
[ Editor’s Note: Is this Biden reinventing Trump’s unipolar power dominance via a two step Biden unipolar power move in Asia with allies in tow, so they are available for cannon fodder use when deemed necessary to keep US trade fluctuations down?
What is important in this Biden plan story is to take a broad overview. By pulling allies into a coalition, he is positioning them for bullet magnets in case of hostilities. So one has to ask, why would they want this exposure when they can just be trade friendly countries with China and sit on the sidelines during a war?
China has no real invasion capability at this point, and has been spending its military money on a defensive navy as protection against the massive US navy firepower. It is also building a strong retaliatory defense as a first strike deterrent. If you want to talk about a threat, that is an undeniable one.
Within this context, to call China’s Navy expansion a threat is just hoaxing the American people to support an aggressive policy by the US to move into a first strike decapitation capability to threaten China.
As for why our own government would want to create a Neo Cold war against someone, the answer is the usual one. The uber wealth interests, who have their hooks deep inside our government, can see themselves making a shit load of military funding money ‘confronting China’, and also Russia, if the peacetime economy is looking dim for them.
NATO is doing a similar move pushing up to the Russian border via Ukraine. Then we have the US wanting the EU to be more dependent on US energy, not for their own security, but so we can have that advantage over them in a time of need.
And, there is the not discussed item that for Biden’s much hyped infrastructure spending to create high paying jobs here, US products based on such will be much less marketable overseas.
Biden needs a cover to always have sanctions put on China so Americans can’t buy Chinese, even if it is better, because sanctions run up the costs.
Economists have always warned that such contrived market moves fail in the long run.
But for countries with a huge military and unlimited borrowing power, which the super rich love, a slow peacetime trade market can always be replaced by a profitable war time market in a jiffy. Think false flag. You just have to press the right buttons… Jim W. Dean ]
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First published … March 25, 2021
While the recently held QUAD summit-meeting did not mention China directly, there is little gainsaying that the basic thrust of the group is against China.
Although there are internal disagreements on whether to tackle China through military means or otherwise, or whether to keep this grouping strictly anti-China or not, the Biden administration has no doubts.
For them, the QUAD is a ‘Asia Pivot 2.0.’ and that the very survival of the US in Asia & the Pacific depends on selling a ‘China threat’ and subsequently placing itself as the primary bulwark against it; hence, the hurriedly done arrangements to hold QUAD’s first ever summit level meeting.
In other words, at the heart of Biden’s “China Strategy” is the imperative of rebuilding ties with allies in Asia & the Pacific, especially those frustrated by Trump’s policies, and then assembling a grand anti-China coalition.
Therefore, while the QUAD summit did not mention China as the rival, the so-called “The Spirit of the QUAD” is more than categorically specific about establishing a US led regime of rules governing Asia & the Pacific.
“The spirit” is about making the QUAD “strive for a region that is free, open, inclusive, healthy, anchored by democratic values, and unconstrained by coercion.” As such, while the summit did not mention China, it still addressed China directly. Indeed, this was more about making China “hear.”
The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently told a US Congress House Foreign Affairs Committee that
“the more China hears not just our opprobrium, but a course of opprobrium from around the world the better the chance that we’ll get some changes. We have a number of steps we have taken, or can take, going forward to include for those directly responsible for acts of genocide, gross human rights violations – sanctions, visa restrictions, etc.”
Again, while the QUAD summit was not overtly anti-China, the Biden administration’s follow up visits to Asia & the Pacific are very much focused on building and cementing anti-China alliance.
For instance, the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday March 13 that he was traveling to Asia to boost military cooperation with American allies and foster “credible deterrence” against China, adding that “China is our pacing threat” and that “Our goal is to make sure that we have the capabilities and the operational plans and concepts to be able to offer credible deterrence to China or anybody else who would want to take on the US”
Criticising the Trump administration’s ambivalent policies that concerned themselves with ‘trade war’ and ‘deal making’, Austin said while the US competitive edge has eroded, “We still maintain the edge and we’re going to increase the edge going forward.”
The key to increasing the edge is through alliances. It is the alliances that, as Austin emphasised, “give us a lot more capability and so one of the big things the Secretary of State and I want to do, is begin to strengthen those alliances — great alliances, great partnerships to begin with.” This will be the key to furthering US interests in Asia & the Pacific against China.
Accordingly, Austin’s visits to Japan and South Korea are most likely to focus on repairing the damaged done to their ties by the Trump administration.
While Japanese officials are sure to seek assurances from Austin that the US military would come to Japan’s aid in the event of a conflict with China over the Senkaku Islands, his time in Seoul is expected to be consumed with the question of whether to resume regular large-scale military exercises with South Korea, which Trump had abruptly cancelled.
Already, the two countries have reached a cost-sharing agreement for stationing American troops in South Korea, a presence that Trump had also threatened to end.
Austin’s full-scale visit to Asia & the Pacific also includes India, another QUAD member and a country at its lowest point in relations with China in decades after deadly clashes last year. Austin’s visit, therefore, will be particularly focused on utilizing the existing tensions between India & China to the US’ advantage.
The US, as it stands, cannot let these opportunities un-utilized; for, such opportunities allow them [the US ] to inject themselves in conflict zones in ways that, instead of de-escalating tensions, serve US interests first and foremost. If the US needs India as an ally against China, it needs to convince the Modi regime that India’s survival against China demands partnership with the US.
Again, the fact that the Trump administration stood virtually aloof in the last year India-China border skirmishes did a great deal of damage to India’s belief about the extent to which it could rely on the US. Austin’s mission will be, first and foremost, focused on rebuilding India’s belief and assuring the Indian government of the inevitability of the US support for their survival against China.
There is little gainsaying that the core focus of the Biden administration’s foreign policy is China. This is evident not only from the first ever summit level meeting of the QUAD, but also from Lloyd Austin’s first ever overseas mission as the Pentagon Chief.
What it shows is that the Biden administration, which is still less than two months into the presidency, is in no hurry to change of the course of tense relations with Chain set by the Trump administration.
In fact, the Biden administration is not only building on the same tensions, but is also utilizing its relatively more “responsible”, more “democratic” and more “stable and predictable” outlook as compared to the previous administration to woo their somewhat estranged allies into a sort of “global coalition” that Mike Pompeo had sought, and failed, to build and lead.
Salman Rafi Sheikh, research-analyst of International Relations and Pakistan’s foreign and domestic affairs, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
Jim W. Dean is VT Editor Emeritus. He was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022. He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews. He now writes and posts periodically for VT.
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China has always dealt openly and fairly with the IRI from day one. They’ve always complied with only the UN sanctions on Iran and not the Likud sanctions that the illegal settlement on Palestine has imposed through the US financial system on anyone who doesn’t dance to the tunes that they want.
What Israel hasn’t been able to accomplish in Palestine in 70 years, China would have been able to do without a single shot being fired just the same way they took over the entire continent of Africa.
And they ARE racist, if that’s something that Israelis are so proud to preserve.
Gordon Chang let the cat out of the bag, ‘without China, there is no one to fund Iran and Russia’. The Neocons finally figured out that breaking China is the key to U.S. global domination. As long as China buys Iranian, Venezuelan oil, and Russian Natural gas, then those countries can survive even the worst U.S. economic blockade.
China is now an enemy of Israel. China, whether they realize it or not, is in an existential battle of their life with an enemy that will give them no quarter.
Not going to happen, Chris. There is no way the Anglo-Zionist Empire (USA/Israel) can stop China from linking up with Russia and Iran in the new Belt and Road Initiative… except with the Samson Option.
Tell me which country isn’t the natural enemy of Israel and I’ll double the shekels that you’re collecting for your worthless posts.
The world has a sorry excuse called Israel to do its dirty deeds and Israel has a sorry excuse to gain what it needs.
An enemy of Iran is a friend of Israel.
Israel did lots of business w/China and was happy to do so until they realized that China continued to buy Iranian oil even after Hasbara ordered Trump to stop the world from buying Iranian oil. I’m not saying that Israel will succeed in destroying China, just that the west was more or less wiling to trade w/China until Israel realized that China was the most powerful member of the axis of resistance.
Long-standing principles of Chinese foreign policy are expressed in the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence: mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.
Our position should be to assist India, Canada and Australia in becoming completely independent of the Monarchy. Thats a lot of shoreline.
One of our longstanding issues, is patents. We need anti-trust legislation with teeth, that make patents void if the holder does not pursue active development within two years for any product deemed beneficial to humanity at large. This should also include defense contractors. There is scientific proof that ideas do not belong to or originate from individual people. We are opportunistic receivers. Withholding beneficial technology or invention, simply to eliminate competition is not a wise path. Copyright greed should not extend beyond the borders of the holders country. Knowledge is withheld this way also.
Sounds alright, but there is a consolidated world power structure existing already. And that power will not be relinquished except by overwhelming force, which can only come from an off-world source. Read ’em, and weep.
Sorry, Jim, the Anglo-Zionist Empire is taking on water and sinking fast, just like the Titanic. There is nothing that Biden or any other American president can do about it. The rest of the planet is sick and tired of colonialism, domination, and exploitation. They’re sick and tired of all these wars for Israel.
The new Belt and Road Initiative will “construct a unified large market and make full use of both international and domestic markets, through cultural exchange and integration, to enhance mutual understanding and trust of member nations, resulting in an innovative pattern of capital inflows, talent pools, and technology databases.” (Wikipedia). It can’t happen soon enough.
Maybe at some point, once we give up on the idea of empire, we can again be a “normal” nation that works for a living and pays its bills. Sadly, though, we have the Samson Option in place just like Israel has. Zionism was always a death cult, Jim. We’ll take the rest of humanity with us into that dark night.
Our Navy cannot bomb the silk road. It failed to help steal oil reserves in the China Sea. Lucky for me I didn’t get aboard the Java Sea as did some of my friends.
Harry, are you talking about the Battle of Java Sea in 1942 where the Japanese destroyed the Dutch fleet? Just who are you, anyway?
The Biden regime is just two months old and quite a few of my friends who voted for him and dragged me over coals for voting for the Green Party are already complaining. The increase in troops to Syria and the bombing are just the beginning of what is to come. Blinken is fast replacing Pompeo as most despicable human being. Just like Pompeo did whatever he wanted it would appear he is the one calling the shots when it comes to foreign policy. The Secretary Of State, Defense Secretary, and some others are all war loving Neo-Cons. If Biden makes it through the first term, we can expect nothing but endless wars. Vice President Harris will not be any better. The JCOPA is dead and as long as that little country in the Middle East exists it will remain dead.
Lol.
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