Is
Trump playing war games with China? According to John Pilger, in the
December issue of New
Internationalist,
if he is,
he is
simply continuing work that the Obama administration committed to and
prosecuted throughout that President's tenure.
Like
the renewal of post-Soviet Russia, the rise of China as an economic
power is declared an ‘existential threat’ to the divine right of
the United States to rule and dominate human affairs.
To
counter this, in 2011 President Obama announced a ‘pivot to Asia’,
which meant that almost two-thirds of US naval forces would be
transferred to Asia and the Pacific.
This
strategic decision led to a massive shift of US military hardware and
personnel into the region around China, including nuclear-weapons
armed ships and submarines. China's own military outreach stretches
into Tibet and to contested islands in the seas off the mainland,
including the largest, the island of Taiwan.
That's
where Donald Trump picked up the joy stick of the war game player.
The mandarins in Washington diplomatic service got into a tizzy when
Trump had a phone conversation with the President of Taiwan, Ms Tsai
Ing-wen, then followed through with a Twitter storm. Sources close to
the Chinese Communist Party are more relaxed, as
reported in The
Irish Times.
Meanwhile,
the Global
Times
newspaper, which is published by the same group that publishes the
Communist Party’s flagship People’s
Daily,
said Mr Trump may have been keen to test how China would react by
taking the call, “and therefore prepare him for dealing with the
country and gaining some advantage after he takes office”.
Since
1979 there has been a delicate relationship between the USA and China
regarding Taiwan, keeping trading relations in full flow between the
countries, while the USA makes it clear that it favours 'One China',
the mainland one.
So
why did Mr Trump take the call from Ms Tsai?
Did he want to thumb his nose at the Communists? Or, as many suggest,
did he not really know the form and didn't take advice on it?
Perhaps, more fundamentally, is this part of Trump's promise to be
his own man, keen to make decisions as he sees them, without the
interference from, as he and his supporters might call them, the
inhabitants of the Washington swamp, mandarins and all, the swamp
Trump vowed
to clear out.
All
of this brings into sharp focus concerns expressed across the world
that the delicately balanced military jousting perpetually underway
by large imperial powers, ranging from the
USA,
through Europe and across to Russia and China, may take a jolt, as
Trump and his cabinet grab power into their own hands. Already
matters are in the control of gung-ho generals and now they ramp up.
Professor
Ted Postol was scientific adviser to the head of US naval operations.
An authority on nuclear weapons, he told me, ‘Everybody here wants
to look like they’re tough. See, I got to be tough… I’m not
afraid of doing anything military, I’m not afraid of threatening;
I’m a hairy-chested gorilla. And we have gotten into a state, the
United States has gotten into a situation where there’s a lot of
sabre-rattling, and it’s really being orchestrated from the top.’
In
response, China has been building airstrips and installing other
military infrastructure throughout their territories as both imperial
states assert their power, like hairy-chested gorillas indeed, or,
more realistically, head butting like male
goats.
However,
‘for the first time,’ wrote Gregory Kulacki of the Union of
Concerned Scientists, ‘China is discussing putting its nuclear
missiles on high alert so that they can be launched quickly on
warning of an attack… This would be a significant and dangerous
change in Chinese policy… Indeed, the nuclear weapon policies of
the United States are the most prominent external factor influencing
Chinese advocates for raising the alert level of China’s
nuclear forces.’
There
is no reason to assume that the Trump administration will renege from
the previous Obama administration's policy of pivot
to Asia, though
spoof news site Waterford Whispers News
reports that
Trumps advisers are keen that the President-elect pull back from his
full-on Twitter assaults.
“Well,
imagine that you could launch a nuclear strike against that person,
from your desk. Not only that, you had the full support of millions
of people to do so. Well, that’s what we don’t want Donald to
realise. And if that means letting him run his mouth on Twitter,
well, it’s a small price to pay. But I really do wish he would take
a fucking break now and again”.
Unfortunately
WWN's satire roundly echoes Pilger's analysis that
There
is a demented quality about this war mongering.
That
is what is most disturbing about the rapid build-up of imperial
military hardware and personnel off the shores of China.
http://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2016/12/05/twitter-war-with-china-preferable-to-actual-war-with-china-say-trump-advisors/
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