Danger

The world’s two greatest military powers are not talking to each other. They don’t trust each other.

The silent and verbal confrontation ongoing for months now between the United States and China is not good for mankind. As they say in diplomacy, when elephants collide, the ants are trampled upon. The grass suffers. The future of humanity is in doubt, if not in peril.

“Trust between major countries is lacking,” China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, admitted at the 59th Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2022.

Based on the size of its military, at 2.0 million, China is the largest. The US is only third, with 1.39 million, after India, the No. 2, with 1.45 million soldiers. In military budget, however, the US is largest, with $801 billion. China is a distant second, with $293 billion. Russia’s defense budget, $65.9 billion, is only fifth largest, after India’s $76.6 billion, third, and the United Kingdom’s $68.4 billion, fourth.

In terms of number of nuclear weapons, Russia is No. 1 with 6,257 (nuclear warheads; Wikipedia has a lower figure, 5,977, but this is still down from the Soviet Union’s peak of 45,000 warheads). The US is No. 2 with 5,550; and China No. 3, a poor one, with 350. The US is the only country in the world to have deployed its nuclear weapon, twice, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, against Japan, which ironically now is America’s military ally.

In the Ukraine war, which enters its first year on Feb. 24, 2023, the US worries that Russia and China are joining forces. Combined, Russia and China will have a total of 6,607 nukes, about 1,057 or 19 percent more than America’s 5,550.

At last week’s Munich Security Conference, China was accused of driving a wedge in the phalanx of unity between the US and Europe against Russia in the Ukraine war.

Wang Yi revealed that President Xi Jinping would soon present a “peace proposal” to resolve what Beijing calls a conflict – not a war, in Ukraine. He asked his European audience to get on board. Ignore the Americans.

“We need to think calmly, especially our friends in Europe, about what efforts should be made to stop the warfare; what framework should there be to bring lasting peace to Europe; what role should Europe play to manifest its strategic autonomy,” urged Wang.

China’s most senior diplomat dismissed as “weak” Washington’s “near-hysterical” reaction to Chinese spy balloons that strayed over the US in January and early February.

“Some forces might not want to see peace talks to materialize,” Wang sneered, in obvious reference to the US. “They don’t care about the life and death of Ukrainians, [nor] the harms on Europe. They might have strategic goals larger than Ukraine itself. This warfare must not continue.”

Saturday night in Munich, Wang and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had an unscheduled brief and not so cordial private meeting. They exchanged charges. Wang did not apologize for the balloon spying fiasco and instead accused the US of using violence to scuttle the matter. Blinken told Wang China was “considering providing lethal support to Russia in its efforts in Ukraine” in terms of unspecified weapons and ammunition.

Before Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Xi and Putin had professed in a 5,000-word statement their “no limits” partnership. Barely a month after the invasion, Russia formally asked for China’s aid in pursuit of the Ukraine special military operation.

So we now have China and Russia together against a common enemy, the US.

Amid the polluted climate, the US believes China would invade Taiwan very soon, or least in the next two years. A US general had said so. And China’s warmongers do not want to prove him a liar.

On NBC News’ “Meet the Press with Chuck Todd,” Blinken said the US was very concerned that China is considering providing lethal support to Russia and that he made clear to Wang that “would have serious consequences in our relationship.”

In Munich, Wang said: “…human society must not repeat the path of antagonism, division and confrontation and must not fall into the trap of zero-sum game, war and conflict… making the world a safer place is the strong desire of all people.”

“This is the common responsibility of all countries and, more importantly, the right direction for the advance of our times. For a safer world, the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries must be respected. Power politics are a recipe for global instability and the biggest damage to global peace.” However, Wang added: “Any violation of the One China principle and Taiwan question in an attempt to create ‘One China, One Taiwan’ or ‘Two China,’ however framed, is a gross infringement on China’s territorial integrity and poses real threats to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”

The world thus is facing a more violent form of Cold War, of a new kind, because this time, there are no ground rules – yet. Previously, the US and China engaged in bloody proxy wars – in Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan.

Wrote Edward Wong, a New York Times diplomatic correspondent: “China’s entry into the (Ukraine) war … would transform the nature of the conflict, turning it into an epochal struggle involving all three of the world’s largest superpowers and their partners on opposing sides: Russia, China, Iran and North Korea aligned against the United States, Ukraine and their European and Asian allies and partners, including Japan and South Korea.” Wong wrote the “Biden administration believes Beijing is close to crossing the line.”

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