Will Washington Risk World War III to Block an Emerging EU-Russia Superstate?
By Mike Whitney
“Russia is an inalienable and organic part of Greater Europe and European civilization. Our citizens think of themselves as Europeans…That’s why Russia proposes moving towards the creation of a common economic space from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, a community referred to by Russian experts as ‘the Union of Europe’ which will strengthen Russia’s potential in its economic pivot toward the ‘new Asia.’” — Russian President Vladimir Putin, “Russia and the changing world”, February 2012
The relentless demonization of Vladimir Putin is just one part of Washington’s multi-pronged strategy to roll-back Russian power in Central Asia and extinguish Putin’s dream of a “Greater Europe”. Along with the attempt to smear the Russian president as a “KGB thug” and “dictator”, the media has also alleged that Moscow intervened in the US presidential elections and that Russia is a serial aggressor that poses a growing threat to European and US national security. The media onslaught, which has greatly intensified since the election of Donald Trump in November 2016, has been accompanied by harsh economic sanctions, asymmetrical attacks on Russia’s markets and currency, the arming and training of Russian adversaries in Ukraine and Syria, the calculated suppression of oil prices, and a heavy-handed effort to sabotage Russia’s business relations in Europe. In short, Washington is doing everything in its power to prevent Russia and Europe from merging into the world’s biggest free trade zone that will be the center of global growth and prosperity for the next century.
This is why the US State Department joined with the CIA to topple the elected government of Ukraine in 2014. Washington hoped that by annexing a vital land-bridge between the EU and Asia, US power-brokers could control critical pipeline corridors that are drawing the two continents closer together into an alliance that will exclude the United States. The prospect of Russia meeting more of the EU’s growing energy needs, while China’s high-speed railway system delivers more low-cost manufactured goods, suggests that the world’s center of economic gravity is shifting fast increasing the probability that the US will continue on its path of irreversible decline. And when the US dollar is inevitably jettisoned as the primary means of exchange between trade partners in the emerging Asia-EU free trade zone, then the recycling of wealth into US debt will drop off precipitously sending US markets plunging while the economy slips into a deep slump. Preventing Putin from “creating a harmonious community of economies from Lisbon to Vladivostok” is no minor hurtle for the United States. It’s a matter of life and death.
Remember the Wolfowitz Doctrine:
“Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere, that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union. This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power.”
Washington’s relations with Russia will always be fractious because Russia poses a perennial threat to US ambitions to rule the world. Geography is fate, and Russia’s geography contains massive oil and gas reserves that Europe needs to heat its homes and fuel its businesses. The symbiotic relationship between supplier and end-user will eventually lead to the lifting of trade barriers, the lowering of tariffs, and the smooth melding together of national economies into a region-wide common market. This may be Washington’s biggest nightmare, but it’s also Putin’s top strategic priority. Here’s what he said:
“We must consider more extensive cooperation in the energy sphere, up to and including the formation of a common European energy complex. The Nord Stream gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea and the South Stream pipeline under the Black Sea are important steps in that direction. These projects have the support of many governments and involve major European energy companies. Once the pipelines start operating at full capacity, Europe will have a reliable and flexible gas-supply system that does not depend on the political whims of any nation. This will strengthen the continent’s energy security not only in form but in substance. This is particularly relevant in the light of the decision of some European states to reduce or renounce nuclear energy.”
If Europe wants a reliable partner that can meet its energy needs, then Russia fits the bill. Unfortunately, the US has repeatedly tried to sabotage both pipelines in order to undermine EU-Russia relations. Washington would prefer that Europe either dramatically curtail its use of natural gas or find other more expensive alternatives that don’t involve Russia. In other words, Europe’s material needs are being sacrificed for Washington’s geopolitical objectives, the primary goal of which is to prevent the forming of Greater Europe.
Washington’s war against Russia is becoming increasingly militarized. Recently the Pentagon deployed more combat troops to Syria and Kuwait suggesting that US warplanners intend to shift from the current strategy of arming jihadist militias (to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar al Assad), to a more direct use of martial force to seize-and-hold territory in East Syria. There are signs of an uptick in the violence in Ukraine too, as President Trump appears only-too-eager to use a more iron-fisted approach in settling regional disputes than his predecessor, Barack Obama.
Also, NATO has deployed troops and weaponry to Russia’s western flank while the US has spread its military bases across Central Asia. NATO has continued to push eastward ever since the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989. The steady buildup of hostile armies on Russia’s western perimeter has been a source of growing concern in Moscow and for good reason. Russians know their history.
At the same time the US is building a ground-based missile defense system in Romania (Star Wars) that integrates the US nuclear arsenal at a site that is just 900 miles from Moscow. The US missile system which was “certified for operation” in May 2016, cancels-out Russia’s nuclear deterrents and destroys the strategic balance of power in Europe. Putin has responded by ordering appropriate countermeasures. Here are Putin’s comments on the subject:
“It seems that NATO countries, and especially the United States, have developed a peculiar understanding of security which is fundamentally different from our own. The Americans are obsessed with the idea of ‘absolute invulnerability’ for themselves… But absolute invulnerability for one nation means absolute vulnerability for everybody else. We cannot agree to this.”
In the last week, the Trump administration announced that it will deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to South Korea citing a need to respond to provocations by North Korea. In truth, Washington is using the North as a pretext for its plan to hem in Russia and China at “axial ends” of the Eurasian heartland as a means of containing the vast landmass that Sir Halford Mackinder called the “pivot area… stretching from the Persian Gulf to China’s Yangtze River.”
Washington hopes that by controlling critical sea lanes, encircling the region with military bases, and aggressively inserting itself where necessary, it can prevent the emergence of an economic colossus that will diminish the United States role as global superpower. America’s future rests on its ability to derail economic integration at the center of the world and prevail in the Great Game where others have failed. Here’s an excerpt from an article by Alfred W. McCoy titled The Geopolitics of American Global Decline” which helps to shed light on the struggle that is now taking place for control over the so called “world island”:
Following World War II the US became “the first power in history to control the strategic axial points “at both ends of Eurasia” … With fears of Chinese and Russian expansion serving as the “catalyst for collaboration,” the U.S. won imperial bastions in both Western Europe and Japan. With these axial points as anchors, Washington then built an arc of military bases that followed Britain’s maritime template and were visibly meant to encircle the world island….
“Having seized the axial ends of the world island from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in 1945, for the next 70 years the United States relied on ever-thickening layers of military power to contain China and Russia inside that Eurasian heartland. Stripped of its ideological foliage, Washington’s grand strategy of Cold War-era anticommunist “containment” was little more than a process of imperial succession. …
By the Cold War’s end in 1990, the encirclement of communist China and Russia required 700 overseas bases, an air force of 1,763 jet fighters, a vast nuclear arsenal, more than 1,000 ballistic missiles, and a navy of 600 ships, including 15 nuclear carrier battle groups — all linked by the world’s only global system of communications satellites….(“The Geopolitics of Global Decline”, Alfred W. McCoy)
For the last 70 years the imperial strategy has worked without a hitch, but now Russia’s resurgence and China’s explosive growth are threatening to break free from Washington’s stranglehold. The Asian allies have begun to crisscross Central Asia and Europe with pipelines and high-speed rail that will gather together the far-flung statelets scattered across the steppe, draw them into a Eurasian Economic Union, and link them to an expansive and thriving superstate, the epicenter of global commerce and industry. Grand Chessboard brain-trust Zbigniew Brzezinski summed up the importance of Central Asia in his 1997 classic stating:
“Eurasia is the globe’s largest continent and is geopolitically axial. A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world’s three most advanced and economically productive regions. ….About 75 per cent of the world’s people live in Eurasia, and most of the world’s physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for 60 per cent of the world’s GNP and about three-fourths of the world’s known energy resources.” (The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives, Zbigniew Brzezinski, p.31)
A new global empire is gradually emerging in Central Asia, and while the transformative impact of economic integration has not yet been realized, US efforts to block the embryonic alliance are getting weaker and more desperate all the time. The hyperbolic propaganda about the alleged “Russia hacking” of the presidential election is just one example of this, while the arming of Nazi militants in Kiev is another.
The bottom line is that both Russia and China are using markets, development and raw ingenuity to beat Washington, while Washington relies almost exclusively on deception, covert activity and hard power. In other words, the former communists are beating the capitalists at their own game. Here’s more from McCoy:
“China is reaching deep within the world island in an attempt to thoroughly reshape the geopolitical fundamentals of global power. It is using a subtle strategy that has so far eluded Washington’s power elites….
Xi and Putin: Leaders with enormous responsibility , leading the world to safe haven while avoiding the provocations of a corrupt empire.
The initial step has involved a breathtaking project to put in place an infrastructure for the continent’s economic integration. By laying down an elaborate and enormously expensive network of high-speed, high-volume railroads as well as oil and natural gas pipelines across the vast breadth of Eurasia, China may realize Mackinder’s vision in a new way. For the first time in history, the rapid transcontinental movement of critical cargo — oil, minerals, and manufactured goods — will be possible on a massive scale, thereby potentially unifying that vast landmass into a single economic zone stretching 6,500 miles from Shanghai to Madrid. In this way, the leadership in Beijing hopes to shift the locus of geopolitical power away from the maritime periphery and deep into the continent’s heartland….” (Tomgram: Alfred McCoy, Washington’s Great Game and Why It’s Failing”, TomDispatch)
Washington is not going to let the Russo-China plan go forward without a fight. If economic sanctions, covert activity and financial sabotage don’t work, then US powerbrokers will implement more lethal strategies. The recent deployment of troops to the Middle East suggests that policymakers believe that a direct military confrontation might be the best available option, after all, a shooting war with Russia in Syria or Ukraine would not necessarily escalate into a full-blown nuclear conflagration. No one wants that. But if the fighting can be contained within Syria’s borders, then it would be a practical way to rally the EU allies, torpedo Russia’s “economic integration” plan, and draw Moscow into a long, resource-draining quagmire. Is that what US war-planners have in mind?
It’s a risky plan, but one that Washington would eagerly pursue if it helped to reinforce America’s global supremacy.
The original source of this article is Counter Punch
Copyright © Mike Whitney, Counter Punch, 2017
Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com.
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At the same time the US is building a ground-based missile defense system in Romania (Star Wars) that integrates the US nuclear arsenal at a site that is just 900 miles from Moscow. The US missile system which was “certified for operation” in May 2016, cancels-out Russia’s nuclear deterrents and destroys the strategic balance of power in Europe. Putin has responded by ordering appropriate countermeasures. Here are Putin’s comments on the subject:
“It seems that NATO countries, and especially the United States, have developed a peculiar understanding of security which is fundamentally different from our own. The Americans are obsessed with the idea of ‘absolute invulnerability’ for themselves… But absolute invulnerability for one nation means absolute vulnerability for everybody else. We cannot agree to this.”
In the last week, the Trump administration announced that it will deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to South Korea citing a need to respond to provocations by North Korea. In truth, Washington is using the North as a pretext for its plan to hem in Russia and China at “axial ends” of the Eurasian heartland as a means of containing the vast landmass that Sir Halford Mackinder called the “pivot area… stretching from the Persian Gulf to China’s Yangtze River.”
Washington hopes that by controlling critical sea lanes, encircling the region with military bases, and aggressively inserting itself where necessary, it can prevent the emergence of an economic colossus that will diminish the United States role as global superpower. America’s future rests on its ability to derail economic integration at the center of the world and prevail in the Great Game where others have failed. Here’s an excerpt from an article by Alfred W. McCoy titled The Geopolitics of American Global Decline” which helps to shed light on the struggle that is now taking place for control over the so called “world island”:
Following World War II the US became “the first power in history to control the strategic axial points “at both ends of Eurasia” … With fears of Chinese and Russian expansion serving as the “catalyst for collaboration,” the U.S. won imperial bastions in both Western Europe and Japan. With these axial points as anchors, Washington then built an arc of military bases that followed Britain’s maritime template and were visibly meant to encircle the world island….
“Having seized the axial ends of the world island from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in 1945, for the next 70 years the United States relied on ever-thickening layers of military power to contain China and Russia inside that Eurasian heartland. Stripped of its ideological foliage, Washington’s grand strategy of Cold War-era anticommunist “containment” was little more than a process of imperial succession. …
By the Cold War’s end in 1990, the encirclement of communist China and Russia required 700 overseas bases, an air force of 1,763 jet fighters, a vast nuclear arsenal, more than 1,000 ballistic missiles, and a navy of 600 ships, including 15 nuclear carrier battle groups — all linked by the world’s only global system of communications satellites….(“The Geopolitics of Global Decline”, Alfred W. McCoy)
For the last 70 years the imperial strategy has worked without a hitch, but now Russia’s resurgence and China’s explosive growth are threatening to break free from Washington’s stranglehold. The Asian allies have begun to crisscross Central Asia and Europe with pipelines and high-speed rail that will gather together the far-flung statelets scattered across the steppe, draw them into a Eurasian Economic Union, and link them to an expansive and thriving superstate, the epicenter of global commerce and industry. Grand Chessboard brain-trust Zbigniew Brzezinski summed up the importance of Central Asia in his 1997 classic stating:
“Eurasia is the globe’s largest continent and is geopolitically axial. A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world’s three most advanced and economically productive regions. ….About 75 per cent of the world’s people live in Eurasia, and most of the world’s physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for 60 per cent of the world’s GNP and about three-fourths of the world’s known energy resources.” (The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives, Zbigniew Brzezinski, p.31)
A new global empire is gradually emerging in Central Asia, and while the transformative impact of economic integration has not yet been realized, US efforts to block the embryonic alliance are getting weaker and more desperate all the time. The hyperbolic propaganda about the alleged “Russia hacking” of the presidential election is just one example of this, while the arming of Nazi militants in Kiev is another.
The bottom line is that both Russia and China are using markets, development and raw ingenuity to beat Washington, while Washington relies almost exclusively on deception, covert activity and hard power. In other words, the former communists are beating the capitalists at their own game. Here’s more from McCoy:
“China is reaching deep within the world island in an attempt to thoroughly reshape the geopolitical fundamentals of global power. It is using a subtle strategy that has so far eluded Washington’s power elites….
Xi and Putin: Leaders with enormous responsibility , leading the world to safe haven while avoiding the provocations of a corrupt empire.
The initial step has involved a breathtaking project to put in place an infrastructure for the continent’s economic integration. By laying down an elaborate and enormously expensive network of high-speed, high-volume railroads as well as oil and natural gas pipelines across the vast breadth of Eurasia, China may realize Mackinder’s vision in a new way. For the first time in history, the rapid transcontinental movement of critical cargo — oil, minerals, and manufactured goods — will be possible on a massive scale, thereby potentially unifying that vast landmass into a single economic zone stretching 6,500 miles from Shanghai to Madrid. In this way, the leadership in Beijing hopes to shift the locus of geopolitical power away from the maritime periphery and deep into the continent’s heartland….” (Tomgram: Alfred McCoy, Washington’s Great Game and Why It’s Failing”, TomDispatch)
Washington is not going to let the Russo-China plan go forward without a fight. If economic sanctions, covert activity and financial sabotage don’t work, then US powerbrokers will implement more lethal strategies. The recent deployment of troops to the Middle East suggests that policymakers believe that a direct military confrontation might be the best available option, after all, a shooting war with Russia in Syria or Ukraine would not necessarily escalate into a full-blown nuclear conflagration. No one wants that. But if the fighting can be contained within Syria’s borders, then it would be a practical way to rally the EU allies, torpedo Russia’s “economic integration” plan, and draw Moscow into a long, resource-draining quagmire. Is that what US war-planners have in mind?
It’s a risky plan, but one that Washington would eagerly pursue if it helped to reinforce America’s global supremacy.
The original source of this article is Counter Punch
Copyright © Mike Whitney, Counter Punch, 2017
Note to Commenters
Due to severe hacking attacks in the recent past that brought our site down for up to 11 days with considerable loss of circulation, we exercise extreme caution in the comments we publish, as the comment box has been one of the main arteries to inject malicious code. Because of that comments may not appear immediately, but rest assured that if you are a legitimate commenter your opinion will be published within 24 hours. If your comment fails to appear, and you wish to reach us directly, send us a mail at: editor@greanvillepost.com
We apologize for this inconvenience.
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New Silk Road in Auckland: Shared values as the basis for cooperation
CHINA.ORG.CN
Dateline: March 30, 2017
ABOVE IMAGE: Premier Li Keqiang and New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English hold a joint news conference in Wellington, March 27, 2017. [english.gov.cn]
So, why would a country, an ocean apart from China, with a Western level of development sign on? This dramatic move, with likely impact for decades to come, cannot merely be dismissed as a friendly gesture between Pacific “neighbors.” Things become a bit clearer when we examine the nature of the project itself.Some may be surprised to hear that New Zealand has signed on to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. This development project is usually associated in the public mind with impoverished and developing countries in regions like Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East.
The key word in understanding the Belt and Road Initiative is “Infrastructure.” This is necessary for any economy to function, no matter what model or blueprint is being followed. In order for factories to produce, it is necessary to have functional roads and railways to deliver raw materials. Without sufficient power, even a country with vast natural resources will remain in darkness.
No matter how healthy or intelligent a population is, an educational system is still required for its youth, and medical facilities must be available for those who become ill or injured. Up until the Second World War, and even up into the 1960s, it was the basic consensus among almost all economists that the State had a duty to maintain a country’s infrastructure, allowing the economy to flourish around it.
Since that time, less credible economic theories under the banner of “Neoliberalism” have spread widely. Figures like Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand argued for a kind of “Utopian Capitalism,” in which the State has a “hands off” attitude. These ideas were promoted by the Ford Foundation, the International Monetary Fund, and other important global voices.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, policies based on excessive laissez-faire principles were enacted across Eastern Europe and Latin America, with painful results in many places.
Neoliberal principles also took their toll within Western countries. Britain has now ceased to provide free university education in many parts of the country, requiring students to pay tuition as government spending is cut.
In the United States, water treatment facilities and railroads suffer from lack of funding and maintenance, often endangering the public. Instead of “free market prosperity” promised by Neoliberal theoreticians, the results of these policies have largely been a significant drop in wages and living standards.
Yet, New Zealand, unlike many countries, has not embraced Neoliberal principles. While the New Zealand economy follows the Western capitalist model, it has maintained social-democratic and Keynesian mechanisms and continued to utilize them for the good of the public.
New Zealand has continued to guarantee healthcare as well as free tuition at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education. Furthermore, while many countries in the West are now talking about protectionism and the possibility of a “trade war” with China, New Zealand has expanded, not reduced, its ties to the world’s second largest economy.
The result has been good for New Zealanders. According to the World Factbook, published by the American Central Intelligence Agency, the average life expectancy in New Zealand is now over 81 years of age, nearly two years higher than in the United States.
In his widely-circulated letter to the people of New Zealand, the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang quoted the country’s beloved mountain climber, Sir Edmund Hilary, who once said, “It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”
Li’s use of the quote hinted at the obvious fact that building a more prosperous world means not only more high-speed trains, power plants, bridges, and hospitals, but also a process of inner evolution. Creating peace and development will require that human beings learn to cooperate with each other in a more egalitarian and collective way.
Despite vastly different historical trajectories, neither the leaders of New Zealand, nor the leaders of China have embraced what often appears to be the “prevailing wisdom” in Western countries.
The two populations have rejected the belief that economies and societies should be organized around the principle of “every man for himself.” Both China’s population and the people of New Zealand feel the State and society overall should be directly involved in the process of raising living standards.
Furthermore, the leaders of both countries recognize that development cannot be undertaken in isolation, and that cooperation between countries, on the basis of mutual respect and shared interests, is ideal for building a more prosperous world.
Caleb Maupin is a journalist and political analyst who resides in New York City focusing on U.S. foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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CHINA, NORTH KOREA AND THE UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL SANCTIONS-CHINA RISING
Dispatch from Beijing
With Jeff J. Brown
China feels the same way, but has to be a little more subtle about it. A North Korean propaganda poster.
Listen and/or read here:
Beijing could also be doing this to help Russia in Syria and the Ukraine, by tying up significant Western signals intelligence and other spy resources in Asia. Ditto the South China Sea.
And in a very Machiavellian fashion, Baba Beijing can use their endorsement of these “harsh” sanctions on North Korea, to say to the West, “see how we are working with you. Now we need you to return the favor on…”. China can also use this as a way to show its neighbors how intrusive Uncle Sam is, and what a destabilizing force it is in Asia.
In sum, just remember that China is North Korea’s very, very big brother and protector. Frankly, I think the West is getting played like a big Buddhist temple drum and it is the drum that gets the crap pounded out of it.
Jeff J. Brown—TGP’s Beijing correspondent— is the author of 44 Days (2013), Reflections in Sinoland – Musings and Anecdotes from the Belly of the New Century Beast (summer 2015), and Doctor WriteRead’s Treasure Trove to Great English (2015). He is currently writing an historical fiction, Red Letters – The Diaries of Xi Jinping, due out in 2016. In addition, a new anthology on China, China Rising, Capitalist Roads, Socialist Destinations, is also scheduled for publication this summer. Jeff is commissioned to write monthly articles for The Saker and The Greanville Post, touching on all things China, and the international political & cultural scene
In China, he has been a speaker at TEDx, the Bookworm Literary Festival, the Capital M Literary Festival, the Hutong, as well as being featured in an 18-part series of interviews on Radio Beijing AM774, with former BBC journalist, Bruce Connolly. He has guest lectured at international schools in Beijing and Tianjin.
Jeff grew up in the heartland of the United States, Oklahoma, and graduated from Oklahoma State University. He went to Brazil while in graduate school at Purdue University, to seek his fortune, which whet his appetite for traveling the globe. This helped inspire him to be a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tunisia in 1980 and he lived and worked in Africa, the Middle East, China and Europe for the next 21 years. All the while, he mastered Portuguese, Arabic, French and Mandarin, while traveling to over 85 countries. He then returned to America for nine years, whereupon he moved back to China in 2010. He currently lives in Beijing with his wife, where he writes, while being a school teacher in an international school. Jeff is a dual national French-American.
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Balance? Objectivity? Those are phony code words used by the corporate media to pretend impartiality and comprehensiveness in their reports. In reality, truth doesn’t have two sides or many sides. It is what it is. And we’re not afraid to seek it and tell it, with apologies to no one.
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US secretary of state ramps up pressure on China over North Korea
By Mike Head
wsws.org
Dateline: 17 March 2017
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is using a three-country trip to Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing this week to line up America’s current allies, Japan and South Korea, behind Washington’s preparations for an economic and potentially military confrontation against North Korea and also China.
Tillerson held talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida yesterday. Today, he lands in South Korea for discussions with Acting President Hwang Kyo Ahn. Tomorrow he will be in China for meetings with President Xi Jinping, State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
While Tillerson is couching his public comments in language about responding to North Korean ballistic missile and nuclear weapons tests, the thrust of his tour is to escalate the US pressure on China over its alleged failure to do more to rein in North Korea.
According to US officials, Tillerson will threaten punishing sanctions against Chinese companies accused of trading with North Korea, and categorically reject Chinese calls not to proceed with stationing a US anti-missile system and attack drones in South Korea that could be used in any nuclear war with China.
Tillerson is the second member of Trump’s cabinet to visit Japan. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis went last month, and Vice President Mike Pence is due in April, underscoring the administration’s focus on using North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs as a pretext for targeting China.
Judging from Tillerson’s and other Trump “security” cabinet moves, Trump not only reneged on his promises of reducing tensions around the world but has increased them to unconscionable levels. Hillary would have probably done the same, under different pretexts and with more stylistic finesse, but the project of constant wars which could end on a nuclear war is a proposition emanating from the irredeemably corrupt councils of the US ruling class and its global accomplices.
In Tokyo yesterday, Tillerson called for closer “trilateral cooperation” between Japan, South Korea and the US. It was important to “maintain a strong alliance in which there is no space between us,” he said.
Tillerson’s visit follows a Trump administration review of US strategy toward North Korea. According to media leaks, it was considering “regime change” and military attacks on the North. Earlier this month, the New York Times reported that President Donald Trump’s national security deputies had discussed both the possibility of pre-emptive US military strikes on North Korea and a reintroduction of nuclear weapons to the South.
Tillerson’s trip is being conducted against a backdrop of huge annual US-South Korean war games, based on “offensive” scenarios that include the rehearsal of “decapitation raids” by special forces units to assassinate the North Korean leadership. Intent on heightening tensions, the White House has rejected a proposal by China to halt the drills in return for North Korea suspending nuclear and missile activities.
In Tokyo yesterday, Tillerson said the “ever-escalating threat” from North Korea’s nuclear program showed a clear need for a “new approach,” but did not say what the Trump administration planned. Speaking at a joint news conference after talks with Foreign Minister Kishida, he claimed there had been “20 years of failed approach,” including attempts to assist and encourage North Korea “to take a different pathway.”
The Japan Times, citing an anonymous senior Japanese foreign ministry official, reported that Tillerson told Kishida that “all options are on the table” in dealing with North Korea’s military threat. The official said Tillerson offered “several ideas” but denied that specific military options were discussed.
Before Tillerson’s departure from Washington, a Trump administration official underscored the White House’s rejection of China’s objections to the deployment, currently underway, of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile battery in South Korea. “THAAD is non-negotiable,” the official told Reuters. “This is one of those things where Beijing is just going to have to adapt to or live in a perpetual cycle of outrage.”
In media briefings, senior US officials said Tillerson would also tell Beijing that the US was prepared to increase financial penalties against Chinese companies and banks that do business with North Korea.
Penalties have already begun, escalating an offensive that the Obama administration began last year. The Commerce Department last week announced that a Chinese tech firm, ZTE, would pay a $1.2 billion fine for violating sanctions by selling equipment to Iran and North Korea.
Although ZTE agreed to submit to the penalty, such large fines have the potential to damage China’s economy. Last September, the Obama administration set a precedent by targeting a Chinese company, the Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development Co. Ltd, accusing it of money laundering on behalf of Pyongyang.
Korea is only one potential flashpoint. During his congressional confirmation hearings in January, Tillerson set the stage for a possible clash with China, saying it should be barred from artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea.
Publicly, Tillerson’s trip was meant to reassure Japan and South Korea of Washington’s continued commitment to their defence. During his election campaign, Trump repeatedly threatened to pull out US forces unless Japan and South Korea paid more for hosting them.
In Tokyo, Tillerson emphasised the importance of the US-Japan alliance. Speaking before meeting Abe, Tillerson said it was “the cornerstone for stability in Northeast Asia and the Asia Pacific” and “we look forward to strengthening that alliance further.” Abe said Tillerson’s visit to Japan was “timely,” when tension was mounting in the region.
The Japanese government reportedly agreed to expedite scheduling of a Security Consultative Committee—a meeting of the foreign and defense chiefs of both countries—to start considering concrete steps to enhance the alliance as soon as possible.
However, the visit also occurred in the context of steps by Abe’s government to rearm militarily in order to pursue its own imperialist ambitions, while still operating under the umbrella of its strategic alliance with the US. These moves include sending a Japanese guided-missile destroyer to participate in US-South Korean exercises near where four North Korean test missiles landed this month and dispatching a helicopter carrier for three months of operations in the South China Sea and across the Indo-Pacific region.
A hint of the tensions between the US and Japanese governments came in the Tillerson-Kishida press conference when Kishida said “Japan will assume larger roles and responsibilities.” A CBS News correspondent asked the Japanese foreign minister about reports that Abe’s government was considering acquiring its own THAAD system and a pre-emptive strike capacity against missile launches. Kishida said he did not understand the question and declined to allow the reporter to clarify.
On the economic front, the two sides evidently sought to patch up the rift caused by the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which had promised greater access to each other’s markets as part of a wider push for a US-led Asia-Pacific economic bloc against China.
Officially, Tillerson and Kishida “affirmed cooperation” through a new bilateral economic dialogue, to be led by US Vice President Pence and Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, who is also finance minister. In reality, the trade war warnings of punitive tariffs issued by the Trump administration, while initially directed against China and Mexico, also threaten major Japanese companies operating in these markets.
The author is a geopolitical analyst with wsws.org.
MAIN IMAGE: Tillerson with Abe: Two disgraceful figures on the global stage. (Flickr)
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