The best partnerships occur when all participants have special talents to bring to the relationship which makes a whole more powerful than the sum of its parts. This is the beauty of the multipolar alliance formed by Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and a growing array of Asian, African and South American statesmen in recent years.
For decades, the United States has taken China’s ballistic missile capability for granted, assessing it as a low-capability force with limited regional impact and virtually no strategic value. But on October 1, during a massive military parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Beijing put the U.S., and the world, on notice that this assessment was no longer valid.
For some this subject may be considered old news, but in truth it just slithered back into the dark before you could take a good look at its face.
To the chagrin of those authors of color revolutions who have invested so much time and energy in their attempts to undermine national sovereignty as seen in Hong Kong today, not only have their plans to overthrow Bashar al Assad, and President Maduro failed, but even their simpler objectives to foment separatist movements among ethnic minorities in China (such as the
Departure of US security hawk lowers the risk of war and has changed the dynamic in energy markets
William PESEK
Turns out, John Bolton is good for something: brightening the outlook for Asia’s inflation and growth.
The people of Hong Kong enjoy one of the highest standards of livings of any city across continental Asia. Since peacefully being reabsorbed into mainland China in 1997, they have confounded endless Western Prophets of Doom: These falsely claimed that Beijing would not maintain its solemn undertakings for peace and security in the city and territory. They maintained that Hong Kong’s historic position as one of the great business hubs of Asia and the world would rapidly be destroyed. Nothing of the sort happened.
China gave Britain a stern warning this week that any naval maneuvers conducted with the US near its declared territories in the South China Sea will be met with a military response.
Several nations attended the annual Eastern Economic Forum this week in Vladivostok. The gathering shows the power of diplomacy and partnership for multilateral development. If only Western powers could learn.
All the more so because many of the nations attending the EEF have had long-running disputes: Russia-Japan, South Korea-North Korea, China-India, Mongolia-Japan, among others. But the willingness for these countries to engage and promote mutual development is a sure sign of the benefits of diplomacy and multilateralism working.
There is too much history here. Maybe it’s time for their longtime benefactor to step away.
Doug BANDOW
In Washington, there is only one foreign policy position: America must do more. More of what doesn’t much matter. Just more. More money. More troops. More pressure. More sanctions. More wars.
Always working a little harder than most to stay a step below reality, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper made especially candid remarks this week that America’s INF pullout was timed for a targeting of forces against China.
