Funny that the Philippines is so transfixed with its local political circuses, while...
The ‘war’ word is being increasingly heard as Europe,
Russia, China and the United States adopt provocative postures
Is the world going mad? Military posturing is quietly reaching
new extremes in Europe, the Mediterranean and the South China Sea. And the
provocative bluster has just reached new heights.
The source was anonymous. But the mouthpiece has a measure
of credibility. High profile military analyst and former US Naval War College
lecturer John Schindler tweeted last week: “Said a senior NATO (non-US) GOFO to
me today: ‘We’ll probably be at war this summer. If we’re lucky it won’t be
nuclear.’ Let that sink in.”
The warning comes as Europe engages in some of its biggest
ever war games — right on Russia’s front door. It’s a deliberate ploy, intended
to remind Moscow of the consequences of its duplicitous invasion of Ukraine.
Half a world away, the “w” word was mentioned again
yesterday. This time in an editorial by a Chinese state controlled paper. Said
the Global Times: “If the United States’ bottom line is that China has to halt
its activities, then a US-China war is inevitable in the South China Sea.”
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Upping the ante ... China and Russia
have recently conducted joint naval exercises in the Mediterranean Sea.
Source: Bao Xuelin/Xinua via AP
Source: AP
|
It came as China’s government effectively declared a “no fly
zone” over the disputed waterway after warning the US over its “provocative”
aerial reconnaissance of several islands.
Yesterday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman issued a
formal protest at the United States’ actions in challenging its territorial
clams.
“We urge the US to correct its error, remain rational and
stop all irresponsible words and deeds,” Hua Chunying said. “Freedom of
navigation and overflight by no means mean that foreign countries’ warships and
military aircraft can ignore the legitimate rights of other countries as well
as the safety of aviation and navigation.”
It represents a distinct hardening of China’s attitude
towards the rising clamour of international protest.
Until recently it had been ignoring military overflights of
these islands by the US and other regional nations.
China is maintaining its stance that its aggressive
construction work on disputed islands in South-East Asia is no different to
building highways or public facilities anywhere else on the mainland. Such is
its determination that these disputed territories are its own.
Combined, the increasingly threatening talk is causing many
to take notice: High-profile US Billionaire investor George Soros told the
World Bank last week: “If there is conflict between China and a military ally
of the United States, like Japan, then it is not an exaggeration to say that we
are on the threshold of a third world war,”
POWER POSTURING RAMPS UP
Early in May, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation began
one of its largest ever war-games. The naval anti-submarine exercise was
designed to send a message after a series of aggressive Russian submarine
incursions into the territorial waters of Baltic States such as Latvia, Finland
and Sweden.
This week saw the launch of a third major NATO military
exercise: Combat jets from the US, UK, Germany, France, Switzerland and the
Netherlands have gathered in Finland, Norway and Sweden for extensive Arctic
combat drills over 12 days.
Russia has not been idle in its response. It has teamed up
with ally China to conduct war-games in the Mediterranean Sea. The 10-day
operation ended last week after the two world powers boldly displayed their
warship muscle in the equivalent of Western Europe’s backyard ‘swimming pool’.
Upping the ante ... China and Russia have recently conducted
joint naval exercises in the Mediterranean Sea. Source: Bao Xuelin/Xinua via AP
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Sending a message... US and Georgian servicemen take part in a joint exercise outside the Georgian capital. Source: AP
Source: AP
|
SIMMERING TENSIONS BOIL OVER
Despite decades of complaint from Vietnam, the Philppines,
Taiwan and Malaysia, the United States has only now begun loudly proclaiming
its protests over China’s expansion within the disputed South China Sea.
It’s in response to a sudden surge of expensive and
extensive land reclamation projects.
They’re incredible engineering achievements. Rocky shoals
and tidal sandbanks are being built up into full-blown artificial islands — 809
hectares worth, in all. And these islands appear intended to house extensive
military bases.
Yesterday, Chinese officials responded to US military overflights
and a probing visit by one of its warships.
“For a long time, the US military has been conducting
close-in surveillance of China and the Chinese military has been making such
necessary, legal and professional response — why did this story suddenly pop up
in the past weeks?” Senior Colonel Yang Yujun commented yesterday.
“Has the South China Sea shrunk?”
“Some people have been intentionally and repeatedly hyping
this topic. Their purpose is to smear the Chinese military and dramatise
regional tensions. And I’m not ruling it out that this is being done to find an
excuse for certain country to take actions in the future.”
The Chinese-government newspaper The Global Times was even
more blunt.
“We do not want a military conflict with the United States,
but if it were to come, we have to accept it,” an editorial reads.
“The intensity of the conflict will be higher than what
people usually think of as ‘friction’.”
Another newspaper, The People’s Daily, editorialised last
September that Beijing should prepare itself for a third world war arising out
of the standoff between the United States and Russia over Ukraine.
Meanwhile Billionaire George Soros explained his fears over
the South China Sea tensions to the World Bank. If China’s economy continues to
falter, he said last week, “there is a real danger that China will align itself
with Russia politically and militarily, and then the threat of third world war
becomes real.”
He was arguing for China to be allowed to join the IMF’s
international currency market to allow the Yuan to compete with the US dollar. Read more on news.com.au
