WAR IN EUROPE AND BAITING OF CHINA

Images of death, destruction and millions of refugees pouring out of Ukraine still live with us. The US and its NATO allies having egged Ukraine on to challenge Russia into attempting to join the NATO military alliance are now fighting a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine in a conflict that that has sent thousands of Ukrainian refugees into neighbouring countries and has threatened Europe’s gas supplies.

On July 1, the BBC reported over 10,000 Ukrainians had died, over 7,257 have been wounded and entire cities wiped out as a result of the conflict. Ukraine’s economy has taken a battering and its agricultural production which supplies the world’s markets has been held up in warehouses in that beleaguered country.

Meanwhile, the US and its European Union (EU) allies have imposed economic sanctions on Russia - a punitive measure for its role in the war in Ukraine. In retaliation, Russia has begun cutting back on gas exports to the NATO countries which are heavily dependent on Russian gas. In fact the European Union’s 27 nations currently rely on Russia for over 40% of their imported natural gas.

While the world’s attention has been riveted to what was thought to be impossible - a war in Europe in the 21st century, the US has been silently laying the foundation for baiting China into a conflict situation in Asia.

China, the rising Asian financial, economic and military super power has been quietly challenging the leadership role the US plays in the region. Former US President Donald Trump during his term raised tensions between China and the US via baseless charges regarding the spread of the Coronavirus. Subsequently, he accused China of unfair trade practices and raised taxes on Chinese exports, while at the same time, accusing that country of engaging in cyber warfare and espionage on US interests.

In retaliation, China imposed taxes on US imports and embargoed certain US imports. The bedrock of Us-china ties (the -’One-china policy’), is the only reason the two countries have a diplomatic bond. Violation of the policy would constitute grounds for the complete dissolution of the relationship.

Therefore, the necessity of holding to the Onechina Policy remains unchanged. Additionally, the official US position is that the People’s Republic of China (PCR) is the sole representative of China - not the government in Taiwan that calls itself the Republic of China. The PCR is also recognized by the UN, while Taiwan is not a member of the UN system.

However, over the years, the US continues making arms shipments to Taiwan, a clear abrogation of the third Us-china communiqué, which requires the US to draw down its provision of weapons from 1982 levels.

Sales have instead ballooned. The US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan on Tuesday and China’s response has to be seen in this light. China was furious. Some felt Beijing’s response as “weak” for not having blocked Pelosi’s flight. But Beijing’s immediate reaction was the imposition of a daunting set of military exercises to be undertaken across the next few days, set in Taiwan’s own territorial waters, with some designated spots even being as little as 12 miles away from the coast.

The exercises have effectively closed parts of Taiwan’s airspace. China also imposed sanctions on Pelosi and her family while initiating a series of sanctions against the island, blacklisting of over 100 food companies, as well as a ban on fish imports and the sale of natural sand.

The US House speaker came and went, but it is the people of Taiwan who will now suffer the consequences. Beijing isn’t foolish to let the latest provocation push them into a conflict which would be the largest since World War II.

We, Asians have seen the results of US involvement in conflicts in the Asia region. In Vietnam in 1995, the ‘Encyclopedia Britannica’ reported the official estimate of the number of people killed during the Us-vietnam War to be as many as 2,000,000 civilians on both sides and some 1,100,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. In Afghanistan, Harold of the University of New Hampshire estimated at least 1,010-1,297 Afghan civilians were directly killed by US/NATO actions. In Ukraine those suffering the war are Ukrainians. Not US or EU citizens. If the situation in Taiwan were to escalate, it is Asian lives which would be lost and Asian economies which would be destroyed.

It is the time the US and its NATO allies looked at the problems that affect their own countrymen/women and quit meddling in the affairs of other states.