It is not prudent and it is not safe to stick an iron rod into a dragon\u2019s mouth. Whatever they say in the West about dragons\u2026 but here in Asia, the dragon is revered as the greatest fabled creature on Earth and in the sky. The dragon is wise and patient, and it hardly ever uses force first. But if treated with disrespect and aggression, it is capable of retaliating in a deadly, determined and powerful way.<\/p>\n
It is also thoroughly idiotic to go and start terrorizing a sleeping bear. It is obvious what would follow if one descended into a bear\u2019s hole and then started poking a hibernating creature in the head. Nothing good would follow, nothing good at all.<\/p>\n
But it appears that those who are ruling the Empire are not obsessed with prudence. They seem to be tired of tiny conflicts, which they are continuously stirring all over the globe. Libya is not enough and Congo is not enough. They need something big, really big; even much bigger than what they had already \u2018achieved\u2019 a few decades ago \u2013 like the destruction of the entire Indochina or Indonesia.<\/p>\n
The Empire needs a mortal fight with mighty opponents.<\/p>\n
Instead of helping to build a decent and peaceful world, it needs to cover our planet with innumerable corpses.<\/p>\n
This time, if it will be allowed to do it, like it was some 70 years ago, tens of millions, and maybe many more, will vanish.<\/p>\n
Once again, it would have to be a dragon and a bear, this time in unison, facing fascism and fighting for the survival of the world.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
The anti-Chinese and anti-Russian propaganda howl is reaching a deafening crescendo, especially in Asia. Western media outlets are in the highest gear, spreading propaganda through both their own outlets and through their local media affiliates in the client states, mostly owned by big business.<\/p>\n
China and Russia are now vilified, openly insulted, and blamed for the escalation of tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, and for the military build up. The entire mighty Western propaganda machine is now at work, demonizing China, Russia and other independent countries.<\/p>\n
It is because the West is obviously pushing this planet towards the war. Not to see it would require truly great discipline.<\/p>\n
Politicians are parading, one after another, in front of television cameras, pledging allegiance to capitalism, the Western-style regime or simply put, to the Empire. All those derogatory and inflammatory speeches against their \u2018enemies\u2019 are embarrassing, see-through, but nobody in North America and Europe is laughing, as they are becoming the norm.<\/p>\n
Many are warning that this can lead to a world war, that the West has lost all restraint and is ready to bathe the planet in blood, once again. A quarter of century ago it appeared that with the destruction of the Eastern block and with China then increasingly on a capitalist course, the West had finally got what it had fought for centuries for \u2013 the total and absolute control of the planet.<\/p>\n
But recently, something went \u2018wrong\u2019 for the West. Latin America rose and most of it gained freedom, then spat on the Monroe Doctrine. China began pushing for socialist reforms in medical care, education, culture and many other spheres. And Russia refused to get bullied and humiliated, reminding both Europe and North America that it is as always powerful and will not be stepped on as happened in the era of Gorbachev and Yeltsin.<\/p>\n
North Korea and Iran (countries that have never attacked anyone in modern history) realized that the only way to survive and not to be reduced to dust is by having their own nuclear capacity.<\/p>\n
And all these nations: several in Latin America, China, Russia, Iran, joined forces and decided: \u201cNever again!\u201d Never again will they allow the world to descend to the horrors of Western colonialism.<\/p>\n
The wet Western dream of unopposed rule over the world is beginning to disappear into thin air. Is the West going to risk the destruction of our planet simply because it cannot own it?<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
\u201cStephen Harper attacks Vladimir Putin and \u2018evil\u2019 communism\u201d, reported the Canadian news outlet, CBC News on 31 May 2014, in reference to the \u201clengthy keynote speech\u201d at a fundraising event that the right-wing Canadian PM gave in Toronto. The speech was spiced with \u201clanguage reminiscent of the height of the Cold War\u201d.<\/p>\n
Grotesquely, the President of the most aggressive country on Earth, the United States, Barrack Obama, was promising to \u2018curb the aggression\u2019 of Russia and China, two countries that have not invaded anywhere in the last few decades.<\/p>\n
In a speech clearly aimed at provoking China, the US Defense secretary Chuck Hagel, spoke more like a thug than a politician: \u201cThe United States will not look the other way when fundamental principles of the international order are being challenged.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Which order?\u2019 Some would ask. Was he talking about the order that is being imposed on the world from Washington and European capitals and has been for centuries, at the cost of hundreds of millions of human lives? Quite an order!<\/p>\n
Christopher Black, a leading international criminal lawyer based in Toronto, provided an analysis for this report:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe speech made by President Obama at West Point, the American military academy, that the fulcrum of American policy will be to curb the \u201caggression\u201d of Russia and China immediately followed by his Defense Secretary Hagel in Singapore accusing China of destabilization in the South China Sea, rightly characterized by Lt. General Wang GuanZhong as \u201cthreats and intimidation\u201d, express the clear intent of the United States to wage war in all its aspects against the two most powerful nations that dare to develop independently of American domination.<\/p>\n
The United States has attacked China several times since World War II, first in the Korean War, followed by decades of attempted sabotage and isolation and then by the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999. It now has continued that pressure by trying to destabilize China internally through various mechanisms of infiltration of \u201chuman rights\u201d groups into Chinese society and within China\u2019s military and administrative mechanisms and a constant propaganda campaign to defame China and its people around the world. The momentum of this strategy has been stepped up with the recent attacks by fanatical Muslim groups from western China against Chinese civilians in key cities and transportation hubs and use of provocateurs to attacks Chinese interests in Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Africa and the recent absurd charges against Chinese military officers for cyber attacks.<\/p>\n
The recent events in Ukraine show that the pace of this aggression is accelerating as America attempts to complete the encirclement of Russia and China by advancing NATO to Russia\u2019s borders and by repositioning of 60 per cent of US military assets to the Pacific.<\/p>\n
But now the true aggressors are blaming the victims for \u2018aggression\u2019. And it is nothing new under the sun. Nazi Germany and its propagandists employed the same \u2018logic\u2019 and arguments, before and during WWII. And the French used it in Algiers and their other colonies, as did the Brits all over their \u2018dependencies\u2019.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
In Asia, on a local level, the servile press in countries like the Philippines is taking orders and often surpasses its handlers in the West by its zeal.<\/p>\n
On May 25th<\/sup>\u00a02014, The Philippine Star began with lashing out at China, continued by quoting the words of Admiral William Locklear III, the commander of US Pacific forces, that \u201cRussia has its own \u2018pivot\u2019 in Asia\u201d. Then the newspaper finally produced a few pieces of \u2018brilliant\u2019 analyses: \u201cOfficial sources said Russia\u2019s incursion into Ukraine has raised concern in Washington that China may try something similar in staking its territorial claims, in the guise of protecting its citizens overseas.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Russian incursion into Ukraine?\u2019 That sounds more like propaganda shouting from the pages of the North American or European daily press. In some 15 years of work in the region, after interacting with hundreds of media people from all over Southeast Asia, I have to testify that such a thought as quoted above, could never have come from a local journalist. Here, knowledge about Eastern Europe is very near absolute zero. And after being brainwashed in London, New York and elsewhere, local journalists\u00a0do not compare<\/em>. Someone else wrote it. Who did it? We all know it. It is the same source, which sends trolls biting at all my reports written for RT.<\/p>\n Most of the local Philippine press generally concluded that the US has basically no choice but to expand militarily, because of \u2018China\u2019s aggressive moves.\u2019 Almost all the newspapers mentioned the high cost of the permanent US military bases in the region, also arguing that \u2018spokes\u2019, bases belonging to local countries but wide open for use by US forces, are the real way forward. Such bases would also be located on Australian and Japanese territories, and possibly in Singapore and Thailand, as well as Malaysia.<\/p>\n Now Thailand is certainly \u2018secured\u2019, after the army that has been killing millions in the region on behalf of the West, overthrew the progressive and elected government, and took control of the country. The coup is truly timely, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n As if it would not already be enough to have countless bases in Africa, the Middle East, Japan, Oceania and those few client states that are still left in Latin America. But of course, those are too far from the main targets \u2013 China and Russia.<\/p>\n The mainstream Philippine media is not even bothering to question the integrity of such a military agreement, which is in direct violation of the nation\u2019s Constitution. It is because the journalists in Southeast Asia are not paid and flown for training abroad, to moralize. They are paid to write what suits the elites and their foreign handlers.<\/p>\n Eduardo Tadem, Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Philippines, explained, during our recent conversation in Manila:<\/p>\n \u201cThe recently signed agreement between the Philippines and the United States is called EDCA (Economic Defense Cooperation Agreement). In this agreement the Philippine government offered virtually all the military bases in the Philippines for total access to American soldiers, for a ten-year period. But who knows for how long, really\u2026 This is very dangerous, because all military installations of the country are now open for \u2018entry\u2019 of the US forces. And this certainly goes against the Philippine Constitution, which bars the establishment of foreign bases on our territory.\u201d<\/p>\n Then what really happened? Why the sudden change?<\/p>\n \u201cIt has to do with certain factors. One, of course, is the factor of the so-called \u2018US pivot\u2019 to Asia. Under Obama there is this strategy of \u2018pivoting to Asia\u2019. Second has to do with the so-called Trans-Pacific partnership proposal of the United States; to build some sort of integrated market in the Asia Pacific region. Except that the Philippines is not part of it for now\u2026 The third one has to do with the territorial disputes that are taking place in this region, both in the South China Sea and the North China Sea.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is mainly an issue of nationalism. And it is also because here they were always asking for more assistance, including military assistance. And this is the way to get that assistance. Also remember that Philippine Presidents were consistently supportive of the US. You probably saw the survey that shows that the Philippine people love the United States more than Americans love themselves. So for the Americans it is easy to get support for their China policy here.\u201d<\/p>\n I asked both Teresa Tadem, Professor of Political Science at the University of Philippines, and Professor Eduard Tadem, how was it possible that a country, the Philippines, that suffered so severely during its occupation by the United States, during the colonial era, when there were human rights violations, massacres\u2026 How come it feels so positive towards its former brutal colonizer?<\/p>\n \u201cIt has to do with the extremely intensive American propaganda machine, which depicted the colonial era as a benevolent type of colonialism. Atrocities during the Philippine \u2013 American War at 1898\u20131901, which saw 1 million Philippine people killed, which was then almost one tenth of the population, were made to disappear from the consciousness of the people\u2026 the genocide, torture\u2026 The Philippines was known as the \u2018first Vietnam\u2019\u2026 all of this has been conveniently forgotten, hidden in the history books. And then of course the image of Hollywood that we are bombarded with\u2026<\/p>\n How dangerous is it to antagonize China and even Russia? For centuries, China had been a very peaceful country, and it still is to this day. Many Filipinos come from China; it is a natural, historical ally\u2026 While the West is liquidating, and bombing entire countries into the ground, overthrowing governments, China pulls one oil-rig into disputed waters, sprays a few boats with water cannon, and it is immediately defined as the aggressor.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is again all about propaganda. They depicted China as Communist and here they always attach a negative connotation to that word\u201d, said Professor Teresa Tadem. \u201c<\/p>\n \u201cFor me the most dangerous country on Earth now is the United States\u201d, continues Eduardo Tadem.\u00a0\u201cIt has been the most aggressive\u2026 intervening in many countries all over the world, thousands of miles from its shores, trying to impose on the planet its vision of a global capitalist system. So, if you compare what China is doing in the vicinity of its territory, and compare it to what the US is doing in all parts of the world, on every continent\u2026 then you clearly see the disparity in the image that has been created, depicting China as a danger to peace in the world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Both professors then expressed deep concern over the fact that the Western propaganda is igniting Sino-phobia in the Filipinos and in other Asians. They pointed out that what the US is doing is actually fanning ultra-nationalism, which can easily mutate into fascism. This is, according to them, an extremely dangerous situation \u2013 planting seeds of Sino-phobia all over the continent.<\/p>\n \u201cThis can lead to a point of no return\u201d, explains Eduardo Tadem. \u201cI am afraid that this is what is happening now in the Philippines, as well as in other parts of Asia where territorial disputes are taking place.\u201d<\/p>\n And it is clearly not only Sino-phobia that can lead to the destruction of the world, although Sino-phobia is partially, definitely is. Stirring hatred against Russia is also clearly on the menu of the Western masters of propaganda. Stephen Harper of Canada, Polish and Baltic politicians and their irrational anti-Russian speeches, is all leading to a frightening outcome: manufacturing racism against those nations that are standing in the way of US and European domination of the world.<\/p>\n Dehumanizing a potential enemy, unleashing racist and derogatory sentiments against him or her, is the first step in the Western \u2018art\u2019 of war, the first step towards a confrontation.<\/p>\n One should seriously question what is being planned? One should demand to know, because what is being planned is most likely really awful.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n People are beginning to speak up. Geoffrey Gunn, a prominent Australian historian and Professor Emeritus at Nagasaki University in Japan, wrote to me, for this report:<\/p>\n \u201cThe international media big notes the \u201cChina threat,\u201d yet\u00a0who is the provocateur?\u00a0 We observe the Japanese Prime Minister in Singapore (May 30) offering to lead an international coalition to check Chinese aggression offering \u2018quality\u2019 Japanese naval vessels to obliging clients as with the Philippines and Vietnam. This is madness coming from a nation without official contrition seeking as well to unpick its god-save, the \u201cpeace constitution.\u201d\u00a0 Meantime, the neo-con government in Australia overreaches with matching rhetoric, together snaring the US Defense Secretary to offer his own \u201cpivot\u201d to the South China Sea. My spin is to let Asian nationalisms (China, Vietnam, Japan, Korea) resolve their own problems diplomatically \u2013 after all the central kingdom has been in place for several millennium –\u00a0outsiders keep out, militarists watch your step, and China rise peacefully.\u201d<\/p>\n From Vietnam, saddened by the new wave of hostilities between two Communist neighbors, Vietnam and China, a renowned Western artist who did not want to be identified, explained the situation:<\/p>\n \u201cI have no doubt the West is delighted at the turn of events and will do all it can to further exacerbate the China-Vietnam etc. rift. Of course it serves the pivot to Asia and other nasty USNATO agendas. But the Vietnamese are just angry at bully China and one can\u2019t argue with them about it. The Vietnam\u2019s PM has been sending text messages to the entire mobile network warning people not to listen to \u201cbad guys\u201d and to only protest within local and international law\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n It is striking how emboldened and self-assured Vietnam is becoming, lately, considering that it is actually doing an identical thing as China is \u2013 drilling in the disputed area.<\/p>\n Many see tensions between Vietnam and China as dating back to the Chinese punitive expedition to Vietnam (after Vietnam entered Cambodia and deposed the Khmer Rouge), known as the Sino \u2013 Vietnamese War of 1979. And it is almost bizarre to observe how unforgiving Vietnam is towards China, but how reconciliatory it has become towards the United States.<\/p>\n During the Sino-Vietnamese War some 10,000 Vietnamese civilians lost their lives \u2013 definitely not an insignificant number. But how could it even be compared to the millions of Vietnamese civilians who died in the \u201cAmerican War\u201d (or the \u201cVietnam War\u201d as it is known in the West). During the American War, entire cities were leveled into the ground, fields poisoned, women raped and people burned by napalm and other chemicals.<\/p>\n But, as in case of the Philippines, the creeping Western propaganda erased many of the horrors from people\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n I spent 3 years in Hanoi. Holding US citizenship, I was treated with respect and never insulted. In a stark contrast, now Chinese businesses are being attacked and going up in flames, while Chinese people (from Mainland China, but also from Taiwan and elsewhere), are being chased, beaten, and even killed.<\/p>\n In the meantime, RT reported:<\/p>\n \u201cVisiting Washington, General Fang Fenghui also blamed the Obama administration\u2019s \u201cpivot\u201d to Asia as a reason for heightened tensions in the region. He said some Asian nations have used the strategic shift to create mischief in the South and East China Seas.\u201d<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Are we being dragged into the final global confrontation, to a possible WWIII? Observed from Asia Pacific or from Ukraine, it clearly appears so.<\/p>\n Christopher Black has no doubts that provoking, antagonizing and insulting powerful independent countries like Russia and China may be the next step towards the destruction of our human race:<\/p>\n All these actions are preparations for war. In fact, the positioning of American anti-ballistic missile batteries in Eastern Europe is in preparation for a nuclear first strike on Russia. Those batteries are deployed solely for the purpose of trying to intercept a retaliatory strike by Russian nuclear forces after a US first strike. They have no other purpose. These preparations for a war of aggression, in fact nuclear war, are a clear violation of the UN Charter and all international laws and can rightly be characterized as war crimes. But since the United States has contempt for all international laws and civilized standards of behavior we can expect these preparations to continue.<\/p>\n Humanity rests on the brink of annihilation for no other reason than the [North] American pursuit of unlimited profit. \u00a0They are the extremists of the capitalist system. We must hope that the skilful diplomacy we have seen employed by both Russia and China, the increased pace of their bilateral cooperation with each other and their increased steps to achieve multilateral cooperation throughout the world from Latin American to Africa and Europe and Asia will change the power dynamics of the world sufficiently to prevent the Americans and their allies from achieving their aims so that the peoples of the world can live in peace and devote their energies to solving mankind\u2019s pressing problems.\u201d<\/p>\n _____________________________<\/p>\n Andre Vltchek<\/em>\u00a0is a novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. His discussion with Noam Chomsky\u00a0On Western Terrorism<\/a>\u00a0is now going to print. His critically acclaimed political novel\u00a0Point of No Return<\/a>\u00a0is now re-edited and available.\u00a0Oceania<\/a>\u00a0is his book on Western imperialism in the South Pacific.\u00a0His provocative book about post-Suharto Indonesia and the market-fundamentalist model is called \u201cIndonesia \u2013 The Archipelago of Fear<\/a>\u201d. He has just completed the feature documentary, \u201cRwanda Gambit<\/a>\u201d about Rwandan history and the plunder of DR Congo. After living for many years in Latin America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in East Asia and Africa. He can be reached through his\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0or his\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The North Americans are the extremists of the capitalist system. We must hope that the skilful diplomacy of both Russia and China, their bilateral cooperation and their steps to achieve multilateral cooperation from Latin American to Africa and Europe and Asia will change the power dynamics of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}