May 2026

BRIAN BERLETIC—Asian states like Pakistan, Myanmar, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Japan, and South Korea get anywhere between 50% to 90% of their total imported energy from the Middle East, according to Western publications like Politico.

China receives up to 50% of its imported energy from the Middle East. Its island province of Taiwan gets over 60% of its imported energy from the Middle East.

With production and exports disrupted by yet another US-provoked war, Asian states — instead of Europe — have now been forced to look elsewhere to meet their energy needs.

And just as the US had done regarding its premeditated decoupling of Europe from Russian energy imports, the US has spent years proposing, investing in, constructing, and even bringing online LNG export facilities specifically targeting markets in Asia. With this capacity already partially online, it is in place just in time to take full advantage of the energy crisis the US itself created in the Middle East, now threatening nations across Asia.

JOHN GERASSI—The basic difference between American imperialism today and American imperialism a century ago is that it is more violent, more far-reaching, and more carefully planned today. But American foreign policy, at least since 1823, has always been assertive, always expansionist, always imperialist. Of course, it has rarely been pushed beyond America’s capabilities. Thus, when the United States was weak, its interventions abroad were mild. When its strength grew, so did its daring.