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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 6/24/15

China Syndrome

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Mike Whitney
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Reprinted from Counterpunch

Why the PCR Won't Get Sucked Into a Pointless War with the United States

China's Rise: The rise of the Chinese economy over the past 20 years has had a significant impact on the rest of the world.
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"China is reaching deep within the world island in an attempt to thoroughly reshape the geopolitical fundamentals of global power-- Its two-step plan is designed to build a transcontinental infrastructure for the economic integration of the world island from within, while mobilizing military forces to surgically slice through Washington's encircling containment"".If China succeeds in linking its rising industries to the vast natural resources of the Eurasian heartland, then quite possibly". "the empire of the world would be in sight." -- Alfred McCoy, The Geopolitics of American Global Decline, The Unz Review

"The future of politics will be decided in Asia, not Afghanistan or Iraq, and the United States will be right at the center of the action." -- Former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, "America's Pacific Century", Foreign Policy magazine.

China's meteoric rise has Washington worried, not because China is a threat to its neighbors or to US national security, but because China's influence is expanding across the region. It's creating the institutions it needs to finance its own development (AIIB and New BRICS Bank), it's building the infrastructure needed to connect the continents with state-of-the-art high-speed rail (New Silk Road), and it's attracting allies and trading partners who want to participate in its plan for growth and prosperity.

This is why Washington is worried; it's because China has transformed itself into an economic powerhouse that doesn't conform to the neoliberal model of punitive austerity, pernicious privatization, and madcap asset inflation. China has slipped out of the empire's orbit and charted its own course, which is why Washington wants to provoke Beijing over its negligible land reclamation activities in the South China Sea. Washington thinks it can succeed militarily where it has failed economically and politically. Case in point; check this out from Bloomberg News:

"The U.S. and Japan are conducting separate military drills with the Philippines near the disputed South China Sea...The annual CARAT Philippines joint exercise started Monday off the east coast of Palawan island and will run until June 26, according to U.S. Navy spokesman Arlo Abrahamson. The Philippine and Japanese navies are holding drills around the same island through June 27, Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force said last week.

"The U.S. has backed Southeast Asian nations including the Philippines as tensions escalate with China over territorial claims in the South China Sea, while Japan is providing patrol vessels to the Philippine coast guard...The drill includes a sea phase with the littoral combat ship USS Fort Worth, diving and salvage ship USNS Safeguard and a P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft and at least one Philippine frigate, according to the U.S. Navy...

"Japan's exercises with the Philippines will take place adjacent to the Spratly Islands, where China has created more than 2,000 acres of land in waters also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Taiwan and Malaysia. Japan will send a P-3C anti-submarine, maritime surveillance aircraft and 20 personnel." ("U.S., Japan Join Philippines in Navy Drills Near South China Sea," Bloomberg)

The "show of force" drills are designed to harass and intimidate China. They have no other purpose. The US wants to force China to succumb to its diktats, to abandon its commitment to new institutions, to open its markets to US corporations and Wall Street, and to allow the US a free-hand in writing trade rules. That's what Washington really wants and that's why the moderate Chuck Hagel was dumped for the combative Ashton Carter as Secretary of Defense. US powerbrokers wanted a scrappy taskmaster who'd bloody China's nose and show them who's boss. Carter fit the bill to a "T," an icy bureaucratic leg-breaker who fancies himself the "smartest guy in the room." Peter Lee provides an interesting insight on Carter in a recent blog-post at China Matters. He says:

"...assertive Ash Carter is not playing bad cop to Obama/Kerry's good cop; he's the whole show, which will delight fans of military control of foreign policy everywhere."

We're glad that others are beginning to see that the Pentagon has taken over US foreign policy. Carter is clearly calling the shots in Asia and Europe.

Lee seems to believe that Carter will outlast Obama's time in office if Madame Clinton is elected president. Which is not surprising, since it was Clinton who first introduced "pivot" to the strategic lexicon in a speech she gave in 2010 titled "America's Pacific Century." Clinton's presentation laid out the basic themes that would later become America's "top priority," the rebalancing of US power to the Asia Pacific. Here's an excerpt from the speech that appeared in Foreign Policymagazine:

"As the war in Iraq winds down and America begins to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, the United States stands at a pivot point. Over the last 10 years, we have allocated immense resources to those two theaters. In the next 10 years, we need to be smart and systematic about where we invest time and energy, so that we put ourselves in the best position to sustain our leadership, secure our interests, and advance our values. One of the most important tasks of American statecraft over the next decade will therefore be to lock in a substantially increased investment -- diplomatic, economic, strategic, and otherwise -- in the Asia-Pacific region...

"Harnessing Asia's growth and dynamism is central to American economic and strategic interests and a key priority for President Obama. Open markets in Asia provide the United States with unprecedented opportunities for investment, trade, and access to cutting-edge technology...American firms (need) to tap into the vast and growing consumer base of Asia...

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Mike is a freelance writer living in Washington state.

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