{"id":218296,"date":"2022-08-22T12:00:31","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T11:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=218296"},"modified":"2022-08-22T11:26:05","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T10:26:05","slug":"amidst-uproar-over-nancy-pelosis-visit-to-taiwan-media-ignores-aggressive-u-s-maritime-action-in-south-china-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/08\/amidst-uproar-over-nancy-pelosis-visit-to-taiwan-media-ignores-aggressive-u-s-maritime-action-in-south-china-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Amidst Uproar over Nancy Pelosi\u2019s Visit to Taiwan, Media Ignores Aggressive U.S. Maritime Action in South China Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Watch
U.S. Carrier Strike Force in the South China Sea. [Source: taiwannews.com<\/a>]<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In order to force high-tech companies to decouple from the People\u2019s Republic of China and reverse U.S. decline, U.S. imperialism needs a political\/military crisis with China.
\n<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

18 Aug 2022 –<\/em> Why has there been almost no coverage of U.S.-led naval maritime exercises in the South China Sea at the same time multi-millionaire Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was visiting Taiwan?<\/p>\n

Consider what is being said, as well as what is totally omitted, in the U.S. coverage of China\u2019s naval action around Taiwan.<\/p>\n

The U.S. naval command RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific Amphibious Assault Training) was carrying out maneuvers involving 170 aircraft, 38 ships, 4 submarines, and 25,000 military personnel from all the G7 imperialist countries.<\/p>\n

Some 19 other Asia Pacific countries were pulled in for symbolic participation.\u00a0RIMPAC is the world\u2019s largest international maritime exercise.<\/p>\n

This aggressive maritime action took place from June 29 to August 4. In other words, it was going on as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was visiting Taiwan.\"\"<\/p>\n

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[Source: militaryliving.com]<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n

The shaping of information is all-pervasive. Whether it is FOX News, CNN, AP, The New York Times or The Washington Post, the multibillion-dollar media are part of and totally intertwined with U.S. military industries.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

They collaborate in hiding U.S. war plans and provocations.<\/p>\n

They also neglect the history which suggests that the U.S. has never had the best interests of the Taiwanese people at heart.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Image\"
Zhong Xiangyu [Source: mobile.twitter.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Taiwanese rapper and anti-imperialist commentator Zhong Xiangyu explains<\/a>: \u201cThe U.S. government has never been a protector of Taiwan. The U.S. Navy was the first country to attack Taiwan with a warship in 1867. The U.S. Navy supported Japan in invading Taiwan in 1874. The U.S. government sold weapons to Japan during the Sino-Japanese War, leading to China\u2019s defeat and forcing China to cede Taiwan to Japan in 1895.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday Taiwan separatism is not true independence. It just means serving U.S. interests in a hegemonic, unequal relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

China\u2019s right to self-defense\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The media coverage of China\u2019s military drills around Taiwan never describe them as self-defense. The media display absolute unity, blocking any mention of China\u2019s right to safeguard its national sovereignty and territorial integrity.<\/p>\n

Every statement or action taken by China is relentlessly described as \u201cthreatening,\u201d \u201cprovocative\u201d or \u201cexpansionist.\u201d The same words are used again and again in news articles and politicians\u2019 statements.<\/p>\n

\"Gen
Typical CNN story that puts China as the aggressor and fails to provide proper context for the conflict over Taiwan. [Source: foxnews.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is only one accepted political line. The media repeat that China is irrational, paranoid, belligerent, menacing and overreacting.<\/p>\n

U.S. actions, even military maneuvers in which thousands of troops employ jet bombers and aircraft carriers, are described as \u201croutine rotations\u201d or normal schedules\u2014that is, if the mainstream media report on them at all.<\/p>\n

The Chinese media are always described as state-controlled propaganda. By comparison, the U.S. corporate media are always defined as free and democratic.<\/p>\n

This is so relentless that it impacts even social forces who oppose U.S. militarism and endless U.S. wars.<\/p>\n

Routine threats by U.S. Navy\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

RIMPAC is planned and coordinated by the U.S. Navy\u2019s Third Fleet.\u00a0According to its commander, their massive training is meant to deter escalation by China\u2019s military.<\/p>\n

Only part of the Third Fleet is engaged in RIMPAC. The fleet\u2019s total size comes to a combat-ready force of more than 68,000 people, 100 ships and 400 aircraft.<\/p>\n

\"New
Vice Adm. Scott D. Conn delivers remarks during a change of command and retirement ceremony after relieving Vice Adm. John D. Alexander as Commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet, aboard Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt<\/em> (CVN-71) on September 27, 2019. [Source: news.usni.org<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\"United
[Source: nihonkoku-shoukan.fandom.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Moving into place as Pelosi visited Taiwan was the even larger U.S. Navy Seventh Fleet,\u00a0the largest of its forward-deployed fleets. At any given time, it amounts to 50 to 70 ships and submarines, 150 aircraft, and more than 27,000 sailors and Marines.<\/p>\n

The Seventh Fleet is led by the USS Ronald Reagan<\/em>, accompanied by guided-missile destroyers, nuclear submarines and jet aircraft. This ship has now been joined by aircraft carrier battle groups of the USS Nimitz<\/em> and USS Theodore Roosevelt<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"USS
USS Ronald Reagan<\/em> off Manila Bay in August 2019. [Source: newsweek.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is comparable to a scenario in which Chinese destroyers were to sail into the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of New Orleans and Houston.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Pacific Fleet consists of approximately 200 ships\/submarines, nearly 1,200 aircraft, and more than 130,000 sailors and civilians. The U.S. Navy maintains 11 carrier strike groups in international waters.<\/p>\n

Hiding in plain sight\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Isn\u2019t this aggressive and threatening? Yet this vast and deadly armada is hidden in plain sight. It is barely mentioned, but even when hundreds of ships and aircraft are involved, they are described as simply participating in \u201croutine\u201d or \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d exercises.<\/p>\n

These continuing assaults are not top news, but they are reported in military news media, such as the Navy Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When the guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold<\/em> conducted its third transit through the South China Sea in a week, the Chinese government was prompted to label the move as a provocation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer Benfold<\/em> conducts routine underway operations in the Philippine Sea on June 24, 2022. [Source: navytimes.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The U.S. Navy\u2019s Seventh Fleet has so far this year sent an average of one\u00a0guided-missile\u00a0destroyer per month<\/a> through the Taiwan Strait as a challenge to China.<\/p>\n

\"An
F\/A-18 Super Hornet launches from the flight deck of the USS Ronald Reagan<\/em> in the Philippine Sea, August 5, 2022. [Source: stripes.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to the Navy Times<\/em><\/a>, China\u2019s foreign ministry protested:\u00a0\u201cThe U.S. military\u2019s actions have seriously violated China\u2019s sovereignty and security, seriously undermined peace and stability in the South China Sea, and seriously violated international law and norms governing international relations.\u201d<\/p>\n

China\u2019s long-held position is that\u00a0\u201cthe two sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one China and should work together to seek national reunification.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Taiwan Strait is part of the South China Sea, and China has claimed the area as its territorial waters. However, the United States has consistently said that it considers the strait to be international waters.<\/p>\n

\"China
[Source: voanews.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Freedom of Navigation \u2013 imperialist piracy\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cFreedom of Navigation\u201d is similar to the grand term \u201cFree Trade.\u201d It is not about freedom. Freedom of Navigation has meant unrestricted U.S., British, French and Japanese access to the looting of China.<\/p>\n

Few people in the U.S. are aware of the fact that, more than a century ago, the U.S. Navy sent fleets of armored ships to patrol Chinese rivers and coastal waters.<\/p>\n

\"\"
c. 1932. [Source: frankstaylorhistoryandroyalnavyhistory.net<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Special fleets of gunboats of the U.S. Navy and Marines patrolled Chinese rivers up to 1,000 miles inland. They were there to enforce U.S. trade interests and suppress uprisings. Armies of occupation from the U.S., Britain, France, Germany and Japan were stationed in Chinese cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cConcessions\u201d were forced on China by brutal gunboat diplomacy and enshrined by onerous unequal treaties that made China pay imperialist countries huge indemnities and grant such \u201cconcessions\u201d as control of its cities, major ports and largest waterways.<\/p>\n

Britain, with U.S. and French participation, fought two Opium Wars in China to enforce its \u201cright\u201d to sell opium. The merchants called this \u201cdefending free trade\u201d and \u201cprotecting freedom of navigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the 1949 victory of the Chinese Communist Party that finally ended these \u201cFreedom of Navigation\u201d invasions into China\u2019s mainland, opening the opportunity to rebuild a strong, united China which is increasingly able to defend its coastal waters and resist U.S. imperialist demands.<\/p>\n

\"Brief
Celebration of Maoist victory in Chinese civil war and declaration of People\u2019s Republic of China on October 2, 1949, which ended U.S. freedom of navigation exercises in Chinese waters. [Source: chinadaily.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The corrupt and defeated former military forces, defending the rights of the old landlord class, withdrew, with U.S. Navy protection, to the island province of Taiwan. This was hardly a democratic process. It was a totally militarized U.S. occupation of the island.<\/p>\n

China has held a consistent, well-understood position on its sovereignty and territorial integrity that is recognized internationally in all world bodies. China has repeatedly asserted its right to resolve this unfinished national reunification.<\/p>\n

U.S. violates signed agreements\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Washington is openly violating three different signed agreements\u2014Joint Communiques it made with China in 1972, 1979 and 1982\u2014affirming that China is one country and Taiwan is a province of China.<\/p>\n

Any focus on these signed agreements of \u201cOne China\u201d in the\u00a0Western media today would expose that the U.S. has broken its promises not to interrupt China\u2019s efforts to reunify the island peacefully.<\/p>\n

Once in a while the truth slips in. Roger Waters, co-founder of Pink Floyd, an English rock band formed in London in 1965, is now on a final U.S. tour titled: \u201cThis is not a drill.\u201d In an interview with CNN on August 7<\/a>, Waters refuted the narrative about Taiwan.<\/p>\n

When CNN host Michael Smerconish said in the interview that \u201cChina is too busy encircling Taiwan,\u201d Waters immediately said, \u201cThey\u2019re not encircling Taiwan, Taiwan is part of China, and that\u2019s been absolutely accepted by the whole of the international community since 1948.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smerconish tried to interrupt Waters, saying that China is \u201con the top of the list of human rights offenders.\u201d Waters immediately shot back: \u201cThe Chinese didn\u2019t go to Iraq in 2003 and kill one million people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Roger
[Source: jambands.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pelosi and insider trading\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The U.S. corporate media are united in hostility to China. At the same time, different media can favor either a Democratic or Republican presidency.<\/p>\n

For example, Fox News<\/em>, guilty of a daily barrage of racist stereotypes against China, was at the forefront of exposing Nancy Pelosi\u2019s husband, Paul Pelosi, for his multimillion-dollar insider stock trading in a semiconductor firm just before Congress voted to give $52 billion to chip manufacturers in the U.S., called the CHIPS Act.<\/p>\n

\"Paul
Paul and Nancy Pelosi [Source: thehill.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite this scandal and her role as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi met with the chairman of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world\u2019s largest semiconductor manufacturer and a beneficiary of the U.S. legislation.<\/p>\n

TSMC plans to build a $12-billion chip factory in the U.S. The semiconductor industry is a priority for the U.S. \u201ccontainment\u201d of China. At the same time, the U.S. government is using various sanctions to suppress Chinese high-tech companies and break chip supply chains away from China.<\/p>\n

\"TSMC:
[Source: stocksdownunder.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Effort to reverse U.S. corporate decline\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Wang Peng, a research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, explained: \u201cThe U.S. is using the\u00a0CHIPS Act\u00a0to force companies in countries and regions of key status on the global chip supply and industrial chains to play by U.S. rules, as well as encircling and suppressing chip industries in emerging markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill\u2019s requirement<\/a> is for companies to pick one of only two choices: business ties with China, or subsidies from the U.S. government.<\/p>\n

The problem U.S. imperialists face is how to force countries in the region to act against their own economic interests.<\/p>\n

Taiwan\u2019s annual exports to China come to $126.2 billion, almost double its exports to the U.S. of $65.9 billion. South Korea\u2019s exports to China, at $132.5 billion, far outweigh the $74.4 billion to the U.S. Japan\u2019s exports to China come to $163.8 billion, compared to only $135.9 billion in exports to the U.S.<\/p>\n

In order to force high-tech companies to decouple from the People\u2019s Republic of China, U.S. imperialism needs a political\/military crisis with China. Every U.S. plan for sanctions on China starts with a manufactured crisis over Taiwan.<\/p>\n

U.S. imperialism\u2019s strategy of restructuring and distorting the global economy to serve its own short-term interests of maximizing immediate profits has led to an aggressive U.S. expansion of NATO and provocations in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The immediate threat to U.S. hegemony was the EU trade with Russia of $260 billion a year\u201410 times its trade with the U.S. The EU has also been the largest investor in Russia.<\/p>\n

Breaking this growing economic integration of the EU with Russia, and at an even greater level with China, serves the long-term strategic interests of U.S. corporate domination that have been in place since World War II.<\/p>\n

In 2021 China\u2019s GDP was roughly 10 times larger than Russia\u2019s. China is the world\u2019s top trading economy and the number-one exporter of manufactured goods. It is in an increasingly strong position to resist U.S. demands.<\/p>\n

The desperate imperialist strategy to reverse the declining global position of the U.S. will be far more disruptive to the global economy.<\/p>\n

\"Political
[Source: theweek.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This information on U.S. provocations must be dragged into the daylight by all the forces determined to prevent another imperialist war.<\/p>\n

The role of the U.S. corporate media is to make imperialist threats seem palatable and entirely reasonable. This is possible only by blocking all past history of U.S. wars while using racism to smear and demonize China\u2019s legitimate, reasonable and lawful responses and countermeasures.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sara Flounders <\/span>is an American political writer active in progressive and anti-war organizing since the 1960s. She is a Contributing Editor of the Marxist <\/em>Workers World newspaper<\/a>\u00a0as well as a principal leader of the International Action Center<\/a>. Sara also works actively with the SanctionsKill Campaign<\/a> and United National Antiwar Coalition<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – covertactionmagazine.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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