Is China pushing hard in the South China Sea because it feel threatened by the US? Or is the US muscling up in the same sea because it perceives a unilateral Chinese ambition to grow its world power? Times are tense. There is talk of the US' actions pushing China to invade Taiwan. All because it's a national imperative, because they must make up for the century of humiliations -- the invasions, the colonies on Chinese soil, turning its young men into opium addicts. And all these are true. So they can't give up on Taiwan and Xi Jinping has made it a central feature of his presidency. But does that make it right? Does that make it inevitable? Does that make it right for the broad masses of the Chinese people, save for those on the mainland who won't be affected in any way by it, save to bask in the glow of renewed Chinese dominance?
I'd like to believe we could get back to a cooperative path, US and China. But it's surely a two-way path and Plate looks only at the one side. As does his hero here Richard Falk. It's yet another version of how it's all America's fault. They're softer Chomsky-ians, not as crude, not as crazy left, but in that territory. Chomsky-adjacent, we'd say today.
Snip:
Understanding China, [Richard Falk] believes, requires a special effort. The good-versus-evil bifurcation produces policy astigmatism that clouds judgment. Naval-gazing – at China’s build-up in the South China Sea – need not trigger regional warfare if China’s motive is understood as strategically defensive rather than offensive, and if issues are negotiated, not militarised. MORE...
