Speaking on CNN, Secretary of State Tony Blinken continued to talk up tensions with China, saying he believes that there are “increasingly adversarial aspects” of the US relationship with China.
Blinken talked of competitive areas as well as adversarial ones, which is hardly shocking since the US openly needles China on several aspects, notably on-again, off-again trade disputes and US incursions into the South China Sea to challenge maritime claims.
Despite this, it is somewhat unusual for a Secretary of State to admit to the relationship being this way, It remains to be seen if this admission portends further hostility from the US or is just an honest assessment.
It’s certainly not the sort of thing one could factually contest, and while Blinken didn’t long elaborate on the topic, it is impossible not to point out how many of the most onerous aspects of their relationship, such as US overflights near China and maritime challenges, are driving the relationship in this negative way.
Indeed, it is getting worse.
Why do Biden and Blinken make it so much worse? They are driving this. Why?
It seems to be entirely an outgrowth of American domestic politics.
There is no good foreign policy reason to be driving relations with China into such a deep pit.
It certainly is not their choice. They are moving along the same as they have for years.
We changed leadership to Trump, and suddenly it dove into a pit. Now Biden seems challenged to prove he can make it worse.
We are raising the crisis in Taiwan and Hong Kong. They’ve been on a low simmer for decades, and then the US turned up the heat.
The Deep State fp has been more than a decade committed to its policy of continually heightening tension with Russia, China, Iran, N. Korea all the way down spectrum through Venezuela, and Bolivia. The idea is to retard their advance, if not bring them to their knees. Operations like Maidan & Hong Kong, Taiwan & Alexi Novalny, and, recently, disrespectful rhetoric, create internal popular turmoil; NATO encroachments on Russia forces increased military spending, crowding out health care, education, infrastructure; and, constant US apparent willingness to risk all out war causing a destructive level of nervous exhaustion. Under Trump they raised the ante with sanctions. Under Biden they are presently trying to raise it still higher by forcing NATO members to choose sides. They want particularly France and Germany to break their commercial contracts with them.
It goes back further. What we have done is make the Monroe Doctrine quite elastic. We manufacture nothing, except war materials, ignore the warnings of George Washington, just blunder bus along.
Yes territorial expansionism has been the consistent arch theme of Anglo-American history.
In 1947, the US was the #1 military power (thanks to The Bomb), and the Republic of China was an insignificant power. Then, in 1949, the USSR got the bomb. General MacArthur noticed that the US was not winning in Korea, and said nuking the PLA was the only way to win. Truman said, ‘The USSR has MAD. You’re fired.’
But in 1989, the USSR began to collapse. Yeltsin told the CIA they could do whatever they wanted with Russia as long as they kept him supplied with vodka. When Putin took over, the Russian military, industry, schools, & etc. & etc. had been dismantled, and Putin had to rebuild from scratch. He wanted the US to think of him as a small town mayor made President who wouldn’t do much, who was no threat to the US. And the PRC, seeing America unchained, was very nervous and also kept their head down, and hoped the US would not see them as a potential threat, since the US was too strong and could do too much damage. The US was free to force regime change with no one to say, ‘NO!’
In 2015, the Atlantic had an article about the Thucydides Trap, about the Peloponnesian War. The Atlantic article said that the hegemon, Sparta, felt challenged by the rising power, Athens, and they went to war. Now the US feels challenged by the rising power, the PRC, and how will this turn out???