The today’s global threat comes not from Russia, it comes from a confrontation between the United States and China, according to the British The Independent.
Spratly Islands raise most of the concerns today. This is the very spot where a confrontation between China from one side, and the US and its allies from the other side, has started. If the parties of the conflict are not wise and discreet about it, the conflict can easily spiral into a world war.
The stakes are high. These tiny islands are located at the very middle of one of the key routes of shipping traffic, the total amount of which amounts up to $5 trillion per year. Furthermore, this is a highly important fishing area, at the bottom of which rich oil deposits are likely to be found.
For many decades, China, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have insisted that all or part of the islands belong to them. But recently, the conflict has hit the critical phase.
China has initiated a large-scale construction process on the islands, expanding their territory and building airstrips and military bases. The US, in turn, is deeply concerned. Last week, Pentagon deployed a surveillance plane to one of the islands.
Washington has recently announced that it is planning to deploy its warships and warplanes to the 12-mile zone around the new Chinese military base.
The conflict needs to be resolved diplomatically as soon as possible as there will be a further escalation of the conflict in case China ignores the presence of the US warships.
Does the US has what it takes to get physical with China in order to not let the construction materials headed to the islands reach their destination? Or will these warplanes simply destroy the ships with the materials, as a large number of American politicians insist?
Soros: “The threat of world war becomes real”
American billionaire George Soros has recently warned about the high possibility of a new world war, which is going to begin between China and the US and would then involve the military partners of these countries – Russia and Japan.
According to Soros, if the US does not make “major concessions” to allow China’s currency join the IMF’s basket of currencies, “there is a real danger China will align itself with Russia politically and militarily, and then the threat of world war becomes real.”
“If there is conflict between China and a military ally of the United States, like Japan, then it is not an exaggeration to say that we are on the threshold of a third world war,” Soros said, speaking at The World Bank’s Bretton Woods conference.
However, it must be pointed out that the chances of a ‘classic’ confrontation between the US and China are low. Both countries understand the kind of undesirable damage they can do to each other.
Today, China still loses against the US in terms of military development. However, Beijing can still blow up a nuclear bomb at the coasts of the US, and the latter would go up in ashes. Not to mention what the US, for its part, can do to China. And each side of the conflict understands that.
However, there will most likely be a great number of clashes in the form of civil wars, like the ones we see in the Middle East today. This kind of clashes is most likely about to spread further. Some analytical experts are discussing the possibility of a strike on Russia’s territory from Afghanistan through the Central Asia Republics.
Of course, China will apply its power in order to aid the loyal to Beijing forces win in this kind of conflicts. The US, for its part, will do just the same. That is a very likely upcoming confrontation between Washington and Beijing.
Is the US prepared to attack China?
What we see today is a new stage of global confrontation, and that is obvious. And May 9 was a clear evidence of that. The May 9 Victory Day parade in Moscow featured both the Chinese and Indian forces.
It was a clear demonstration that the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) begin to transform from an exclusively economic union to a military-political one. The union transforms, and this union is anti-West.
There is already the BRICS bank and agreements of interstate trade without the use of US dollars. And the US, in turn, can only be concerned about major countries leaving the ‘dollar zone’.
However, China is the second (after Canada) key trades partner to the US with the annual trade turnover amounting up to $500 billion. It is first of all a mutually beneficial trade between the two countries, and second of all, a means for containment, which makes the whole situation highly contradictory.
China, for its part, doesn’t claim to be the world leader. However, the Chinese are very similar to the Western people in terms of mindset.
The Chinese think that China is the central empire, the center of the world, while the rest of nations are simply going through different stages of barbarity. This thought is not officially projected through the Chinese politicians, but can be widely heard from Chinese foreign politics experts.
It must also be pointed out that at the beginning of Barack Obama’s term, famous geopoliticians Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski suggested a special relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China – Group of Two (G-2).
Basically it was a concept of a joint ruling over the world of the US and China. The Chinese declined the suggestion and Obama was forced to get back to the policy of containment. That is the exact reason why Washington has been establishing relations with Vietnam as well as a number of other small governments of the Southeast Asia. The US has been also trying to include Japan and Australia to their plans.
