When Russia launched its Special Military Operation in Ukraine in February 2022, no one imagined that this war would ignite a global fire that is destroying the U.S.-led International Order that has ruled the world since the end of World War II. I know I did not understand that the very foundations of U.S. international economic and foreign policy would be crumbling so rapidly and so pervasively. Four of the top six countries in terms of wealth from natural resources are now uniting against the United States as a consequence of the war in Ukraine. Though number 6 on the list, China is a big factor on the global stage and ain’t going away..
Let’s start with China. China keenly watched the Western led effort to destroy the Russian economy with sanctions, to erase Russian culture and influence from the world stage and to replace the government of Vladimir Putin and realized that it was next on the chopping block. It did not help matters that anti-Chinese rhetoric in the United States reached unprecedented levels of vitriol, with China being routinely described as an enemy of the United States by prominent politicians from both parties.
China’s expectations that the United States would honor the One China policy negotiated with Richard Nixon in 1972 were obliterated as Washington went out of its way to intimate that Taiwan is an independent nation. It was not just idle talk. In 2022, then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi led a delegation to Taiwan over China’s strenuous objections only to be followed a year later by the current Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, welcoming Taiwan’s current President to the United States. That insult was preceded by the U.S. shooting down a Chinese balloon, which China insisted was a weather platform while Washington claimed it was spying. All of this has had a cumulative effect and is producing a sea change in U.S./Chinese relations that is altering the economic, diplomatic and military status quo. To put it simply, this is like the iconic scene in the movie NETWORK — the Chinese are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore.
On the economic front the Chinese, who control 98% of the world’s production of rare earths, is reportedly planning to ban the export of rare earth magnet technology to the United States for national security reasons, according to an article in Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun. Those rare earth minerals are essential to the production of electric vehicles and a bevy of advanced U.S. military weapons and air craft.
On the military front, China decided to flex its maritime muscles, surrounding Taiwan with a fleet, that included 9 Destroyers & 1 Naval Aircraft Carrier and carried out simulated missile strikes on Taiwan.
China also is making historic and substantive moves on the diplomatic scene. In early March, Beijing brokered a rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Nobel prize perhaps? The Iranians and Saudis met in Beijing on 6 April to seal the deal.
And that agreement produced quick results with the arrival of Saudi and Omani envoys in Sanaa today to initiate peace talks with Houthi leaders, and bring an end to the proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia (much to the dismay of Washington, who viewed that conflict as a way to weaken Iran), according to Reuters.
China’s new, warm relationship with Russia, has alarm bells ringing among the Western allies. France’s Macron, notwithstanding his abject failures as a leader, has acute hearing. He also is a world class sycophant and did not lose a minute in scrambling to suck up to China. Macron’s ineptitude as a diplomat was vividly displayed by his foolish decision to bring the head of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, to his meetings with President Xi. The Chinese were not happy. The Chinese ignored her and refused to extend any diplomatic courtesies. French politician, Florian Filippo, reported on Twitter that poor Ursula was forced to fly commercial and go through regular passenger screening:
Zero reception, total disregard, she even had to leave the country on a regular passenger flight!”
Following his failure to sway Xi Jinping to distance themselves from Russia, Macron dropped some diplomatic bombs in an interview with Politco during the flight back to riot-torn Paris:
Europe must reduce its dependency on the United States and avoid getting dragged into a confrontation between China and the U.S. over Taiwan, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview on his plane back from a three-day state visit to China.
Speaking with POLITICO after spending around six hours with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his trip, Macron emphasized his pet theory of “strategic autonomy” for Europe, presumably led by France, to become a “third superpower.”
He said “the great risk” Europe faces is that it “gets caught up in crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its strategic autonomy,” while flying from Beijing to Guangzhou.
China is doing more than doing diplomatic talk. A ship it sent carrying 57 housing units and 429 tons of supplies for the survivors of the recent earthquake, arrived at Lattakia port on Easter Sunday. While the United States is conducting military operations against the Government of Syria on Syrian territory, the Chinese are using humanitarian aid to send a clear message that China is a friend, not a foe.
Then there is the economic bad news for Pax Americana. The Chinese and Russians are collaborating to create a new international currency and more countries are using the Chinese currency, the Yuan, to do trade deals previously done in dollars. Two weeks ago, China and Brazil announced a “a deal to trade in their own currencies, ditching the US dollar as an intermediary,” according to Barron’s.
This is not an isolated happening. The move to the Yuan picked up steam last year.
The amount of international transfers in yuan reached 96.7 trillion yuan (about $14.14 trillion), up 21.48 percent year on year, according to data from the People’s Bank of China (PBoC).
The real revelation is that China and Russia are exposing the United States has a major instigator of wars and international chaos. In addition to bringing the Saudis and Iranians together, China and Russia are working with the Saudis to restore Syria’s membership and status in the Arab league. Previous support among the Gulf Arabs for the U.S./U.K. led effort to oust Syria’s President Assad by fomenting an insurgency is evaporating. Instead, those countries are now working with China and Russia to bring an end to the civil wars in Yemen and Syria.
And what is the U.S. response? Threaten more sanctions against countries not willing to kowtow to U.S. demands. Funny thing though, the United States, like the Great and Powerful Oz, is being exposed as a cranky old man hiding behind a curtain.
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