Photograph Source: Marko Kafé – CC BY 4.0 IL
While the west subsidizes carnage in Gaza and Ukraine, the east does the opposite. For instance, one potential far east flashpoint has long been the India/China border, but that’s changing – for the better, due to high-level meetings in December between political bigwigs from both countries. It was the first such confab since 2019, RT reported December 18, “as the nations seek to restore ties that have been strained after border clashes in 2020.”
BRICS also helped promote this ongoing reconciliation. Indeed, in the runup to the recent BRICS Kazan pow-wow, India abandoned its anti-China policies, nurtured by the U.S., thus subtly proclaiming its independence from the Exceptional Empire, its resolve not to be Washington’s puppet in Asia and thereby its unreliability for Beltway plots to gang up on the five-thousand-year-old civilization. On October 24, Asia Times reported that this agreement to disengage “from their prolonged border standoff” came “on the sidelines of the 16th BRICS summit,” thus making BRICS an icon for global peace. It’s already a symbol of multipolarity’s economic success. But by easing this huge step toward comity between two nuclear-armed nations, the group ventured into global political norm-setting. It also frustrated long-standing Anglo Saxon divide and rule schemes.
Because make no mistake, the U.S. is truly all about fomenting chaos in the world. Just take Syria, Gaza, Ukraine, Libya and Iraq, for starters. The Washington philosophy is that by disrupting societies it can’t control, it retains its grip on the planet’s wealth. But that boneheaded world view is already hopelessly outmoded. Just look at the Chinese economic powerhouse, surging forward no matter what Uncle Sam does or how shrilly the western corporate press screams about Beijing’s supposed woeful economic tumble. And China will continue to surge, as will Russia, and as will BRICS. The CIA stupids need to wake up: wreaking havoc will not, long-term, lead to riches. Sure, stealing Syria’s oil pays off, but that financial killing is remarkably shortsighted. It only cements anti-U.S. solidarity in an ever more assertive Global South. And that solidarity via BRICS and the China-Russia-Iran-North Korea alliance will ultimately harm the west, large swaths of which, namely Europe, already suffer from the twin curses of deindustrialization due to Washington’s sanctions on Moscow’s energy and the profound ill-luck of being U.S. vassals.
The India/China 2020 deadly border eruption ended in a standoff that “strained both diplomatic and economic ties between the two neighbors.” India prohibited Chinese mobile applications, limited some “imports of electronics” and more scrupulously oversaw Chinese investments, among other economic retaliations. According to Xinhua News December 18, things have now changed. “India is willing to strengthen strategic communication with China, expand mutually beneficial cooperation and inject new impetus into the relations.”
Chinese vice president Han Zheng, who met with India’s national security advisor, said that the two nations “as ancient oriental civilizations and emerging major powers, adhere to independence, solidarity and cooperation.” Next year is “the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and India,” and those relations have, since the Kazan synod, zoomed forward.
Another rapprochement sure to give Washington mandarins heartburn came on Christmas day. That’s when the Japanese foreign minister arrived in Beijing to promote love between the two great Asian nations. According to China expert Arnaud Bertrand on X January 3, the two countries “agreed on an unprecedented (at least since WWII) list of initiatives to warm their respective public opinions to each other.” He listed seven of them: promoting youth exchange visits; deeper cooperation in education; more cooperation in tourism; expanding exchanges between friendly cities; strengthening sports cooperation; facilitating mutual exchanges in film, television, music, publishing, animation and gaming; enhancing relations between media outlets and think tanks. What can imperial panjandrums say to their erstwhile flunkies in Tokyo besides, et tu, Brute?
Meanwhile, with China and India reconciled, what’s an imperial hegemon to do? Washington thereby loses a critical bludgeon with which to make Beijing’s life miserable; the Empire was counting on India to initiate border hostilities with China. Oh well, it can still make trouble in the China Sea where puppets, ahem, allies like the Philippines contest atolls with China. And don’t forget Australia, that reliable imperial lapdog ready to hop to in case, I suppose, of war over Taiwan – because that’s what Joe “War Is My Legacy” Biden proclaimed on at least four occasions would happen, if Beijing moved to reunite with the island. And America rarely goes to war without “allies.” As H.L. Mencken long ago observed, plenty of other countries historically have made war solo, but the Anglo Saxons, not so much (I don’t want to repeat his rude explanation of why). Suffice it to say, the loss of India as a team player against China crimps America’s style.
The secret truth is, as journalist and military expert David Goldman has written, the pentagon does not want war with China over Taiwan. But don’t tell that to certain loud-mouthed martial big shots who like to boast to the media about how we’ll take the Chinese down a notch if they make a move on, um,…the part of China called Taiwan (and even recognized as such in the official U.S. One China policy). And don’t tell it to Joe Biden. He worked hard burnishing his tough-on-the-red-Chinese image – he and other inmates of the old folks home called the federal government, like Nancy Pelosi. Shouting about how they’re gonna hammer the Chinese is the senile or just senior politician’s brand. Just like jetting into Taiwan to display defiance and, supposedly, pluck, is a routine and tedious stunt for American political hacks. I’m surprised Biden hasn’t done that yet, since everyone from Pelosi to Mike “We Lied, We Cheated, We Stole” Pompeo did. But there are still a few more days left in Biden’s tenure, so don’t count him out completely for a midnight stopover on the island.
To return to the question: why doesn’t the pentagon want war with China? Because they’ve war-gamed it at least 18 times and every time the U.S. lost or got very badly bloodied. That’s largely because the age of the aircraft carrier sunset some time ago, and now they’re just sitting ducks for hypersonic missiles (which the pentagon lacks, but China bristles with). Sadly, what’s the American naval forte, aside from nuclear submarines? You got it – aircraft carriers. Hence our military’s sensible reluctance to provoke actual combat over Taiwan.
Besides, there are better ways for Washington to do what it does best, namely put the screws to its allies. On January 1 came news that Kiev halted transit of Russian gas in the pipelines that cross Ukraine. While this may benefit more expensive energy from the U.S. and be a matter of indifference to Moscow (which will still sell gas to Europe in large quantities by other means), it’s lousy for Slovakia, Romania, Moldova, Poland and Hungary. It is, after all, winter, and people need heat. To say nothing of potential blow-back from nations like Slovakia against Ukraine, which lacks electricity and gets it from Slovakia, which, in turn, has sworn to withhold it, once Kiev blocks Russian energy.
How can Kiev afford to forego the mountains of cash piled up by the pipelines’ 20 percent transit fees? Well, it gets showered with billions of dollars by a Washington very eager, as some have astutely argued on X, to stick it to Slovakia’s independent-minded prime minister Robert Fico and the equally averse to imperial control, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban – that’s how. Too bad, I guess if allies like Romania and Poland suffer; there’s always collateral damage for Washington’s geopolitical stratagems and that collateral damage is often a so-called friend. So while this Ukraine pipeline imbroglio simmers, the Exceptional Empire, which did so much to foment it, sits, falsely innocent, on the sidelines, gloating. Divide and rule wins one last time.
