Prelude to Conflict: Asia, July 14

The word for the week is “rhetoric”. There has been a lot of talk and analysis of the situation with China and Southeast Asia. China continues to bully. The US calls for calm.

In Asian thinking, China’s aggression is “polite”. It serves as a kind of warning. Beijing expects the West to run away like Chinese employees flee when the boss clears his throat. But anyone who understands the West knows that won’t happen, especially with the US. In America, if the boss clears his throat once, a union forms. If he clears his throat twice, the union goes on strike. Beijing is confused, however, since the US is neither fleeing nor striking. The Yank’s strength remains, literally, below the surface. With US submarines, China’s navy doesn’t stand a chance.

Only more recently has Beijing discovered US activity in the air and on the seas. For Asian culture, it’s uncontrollably irritating to see how close another sovereign State is. That aggravation has driven Beijing to miscalculate the situation.

This week, most of what happened was just “talk”. The US had the annual talk with China, though nothing has come of it yet. There were a lot of analyses, but not much in the way of new decisions or demonstrations. The biggest change is that the Pentagon has asked that there be no more changes in Southeast Asia.

Or, maybe there is another change. All of a sudden, Taiwanese are asking, “What is Hamas?” Typically, Taiwanese are unaware of Israel. While Israel has made headlines many times in the past, those headlines made their way to Taiwan this time. This is interesting. If Taiwan is becoming aware of Israel, then Taiwan is getting much closer to the US than Beijing may realize. Taiwan could end up destabilizing Beijing Communism like Israel destabilizes Statist Islam.

China faces truth

Election Win Will Shift China toward DPP

U.S. Navy-China showdown: Chinese try to halt U.S. cruiser in international waters

…Old story, but China didn’t learn

China thinks it can defeat America in battle

…More recently

Japan upset as Chinese paper prints mushroom clouds on map

Military extends UAV deployment area

…Taiwan increasing their military surveillance area.

A New Power Structure In Asia: India+China+Japan – Analysis

Role of the US

Pentagon plans new tactics to deter China in South China Sea