Allegiances are solidifying in the Asia-Pacific.
On Friday, China, which has remained relatively quiet as tensions have spiked between the United States and North Korea over the past week, recognized that “it needs to make clear its stance to all sides” and did so in an editorial in its state-run Global Times:
“China should also make clear that if North Korea launches missiles that threaten U.S. soil first and the U.S. retaliates, China will stay neutral,” it reads. But on the flip side:
If the U.S. and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so.
There can be no misinterpretation. If North Korea attacks the U.S., the country is on its own. But if the U.S. tries to take out Kim Jong-un, China will defend its ally with what the editorial calls a “firm hand.”
So amid the blustering by both Donald Trump and the Kim regime, China has drawn its line. And meanwhile, other nations in the Asia-Pacific are taking the opportunity to show their support for the United States.
For South Korea, which, along with Japan, has been the primary backer of the United States in the region, a response to North Korea’s threat to launch missiles at Guam meant invoking its friend from the West:
“If North Korea commits provocations despite our stern warning, it will face a strong response from South Korea’s military and the U.S.-South Korea alliance,” a spokesman for South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said Thursday.
Japan, whose land Kim’s missiles would supposedly fly over, stated Thursday it had every right to shoot down North Korean missiles if they were to approach. Not that Japan’s willingness to start firing has been in doubt. It was Japan, after all, that published a white paper Tuesday hyping up the North Korean threat.
Australia, which recently hinted it fully backed the U.S. in the region, officially endorsed the Western superpower following the threat against Guam. From The Guardian:
Malcolm Turnbull has made it plain that Australia will be involved in any conflict in the event North Korea attacks the United States.
The prime minister told 3AW on Friday morning ‘if there is an attack on the US, the Anzus treaty would be invoked’ and Australia would come to the aid of the United States.
He said the form of Australia’s engagement would be determined in consultation with allies. ‘In terms of defence, we are joined at the hip,’ Turnbull said.
The aforementioned hint came days before, on Monday, when Australia, in a joint statement issued by the United States and Japan, called on China to halt its militarization of artificial islands it created in the South China Sea and abide by the U.N. ruling that invalidated its claim to those waters.
The title of Forbes’ article on that news, “Australia, Japan and the U.S.: The South China Sea Isn’t China’s Own Sea,” summed up the message rather succinctly.
On that front, Vietnam has emerged as the most vocal opponent to China’s claims to the South China Sea. The animosity there was showcased Monday when ministers from the two countries canceled a scheduled meeting on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit.
Meanwhile, Vietnam has been quietly strengthening its military ties to the United States.
Last year, in what Asia-Pacific specialist The Diplomat called a “historic move,” Barack Obama fully lifted a Cold War-era embargo that blocked the sale of arms to Vietnam. The defense relationship has been gradually developing since. Now, it seems, the South China Sea is being used as an excuse for the militaries to further cooperate.
From Reuters on Tuesday:
Vietnam has won the promise of a visit from a U.S. aircraft carrier and deeper defense cooperation from the United States as strains show with China over the disputed South China Sea.
Within Southeast Asia, Vietnam has become an increasingly lonely voice in challenging Chinese claims to the vast majority of the waterway and was forced to suspend some offshore oil drilling last month after pressure from Beijing.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Vietnamese counterpart Ngo Xuan Lich in Washington on Tuesday that a strong defense relationship was based on common interests that included freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
We know whose back Vietnam will have should war break out over North Korea. And with China now having set the terms of its potential engagement in the conflict, all that’s left to do is wait and see how the U.S. responds as North Korea’s supposed mid-August missile launch on Guam looms.
The US funded and aided in the Bolshevik revolution and Mao Revolution. It’s America’s turn. The masons have distributed the “coffin liners”. Have you ever observed the history of the atrocities of the Cheka and Mao revolutionaries? There will be no mercy as the US military and police have more than shown themselves capable of any evil on command in manufacturing order out of chaos.
If the Americans think that their government is on their side – wait until the planet goes thru a major change — they will all be slaves – and not taxpayer types. Only the American people can rule their destiny – or slavery !
I’m beginning to believe that this whole US -vs- NK dustup is nothing more than a dog-n-pony show for the masses.
The 15 member UN security counsel has recently voted unanimously for crippling sanctions against NK — sanctions that would reduce NK’s income by 1/3. This is nothing short of an act of war. Literally. All 15 members of the security counsel are countries dominated by private central banks. NK does not have a central bank — also — NK has significant mineral wealth measured in the trillions.
No sovereign country would allow an external group to dictate policy. No sovereign country would allow external forces to bleed away 1/3 of their income. This whole situation does not pass the smell test.
Either there will be war on some level or this is just another bullshit false flag in the making.
North Koreans are struggling as it is. The NK govt is directing the production of opium, heroin and esp. meth to bring in more revenue. It’s being sold to China creating a serious meth problem there. In response, China has launched a major war of drugs campaign. The lives of N. Koreans are very difficult, a precarious survival.
Here’s a short interview of some young defectors describing life in NK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyqUw0WYwoc
I’d prefer to listen to a ‘westerner’ who has first hand knowledge, than someone who is quite easily bought to slag the nation off.
This contradicts other information I have come across.
A westerner who has first hand knowledge, meaning someone living among the people in NK? Best info is to survey as many people as possible who lived the experience.
Don’t be so sure about potential alliances in South East Asia. There is a lot to be said about living with a neighbour as strong as China. The US is the interloper, coming into the area and continually stirring up trouble, then retreating back to its own sphere of influence in the Northern hemisphere. The small nations surrounding China on the other hand are locked in place and will always have their big neighbour to deal with.
So China would perhaps enrage America by losing its favored Trade Deal, hardly part of its Agenda 21 Protocol. Best sort this out before AI Artificial Intelligence approx 2025 overtakes Chinese economy, or is all this planned for NAU North Amerikano Utopia with Rothschild Central Bank supplying much needed Aid for its 3 Million Troops.
https://forbiddenknowledgetv.net/max-igan-5g-roll-out-and-ai-will-transform-human-society-by-2025
My Priminister has stated: ‘In terms of defense, we are joined at the hip,’
Actually Turnbull is close to stating the truth however what he should have said was: “In terms of defence we are seated on America’s lap”. Australia has no reason to go to war with North Korea let alone China. Gough Whitlam was the only Priminister we ever had who dared to stand up to America and predictably the C.I.A took him out in a flash. Regardless of the ANZUS treaty, it would be in Australia’s best interests to become neutral and hope America would wake up to itself and stop scanning the Planet looking for who they can bomb next.
The US has no reason to go war with N. Korea either and hopefully cooler heads will prevail and this is more fear porn. Activist Post has this article from Newsweek in it’s “from around the web” section: http://www.newsweek.com/trump-north-korea-missiles-nuclear-scientists-649702 ….Thankfully, it confirms the hype is overblown.
Didn’t know about Gough Whitlam. Summarily dismissed from office, wow. That was 1975, long CIA tentacles. US Congressman Larry McDonald who tried to expose the cabal taking over the US was never seen again when his plane was taken down in 1983 by Soviet jet fighters. An online friend of mine told me his roommate back in that era was told his uncle (CIA) was pulled off McDonald’s plane at the last minute by another CIA officer. McDonald apparently was unwitting to the fact the John Birch Society he had been a president of was being used as controlled opposition by Fred Koch, the father of the notorious billionaire “neocon” Koch brothers. Fred Koch was a close friend of Stalin.
Apologies, zyklzy, I included a Newsweek link that’s posted here on Activist Post but that apparently sent my comment into pending. Here it is without the link.
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The US has no reason to go war with N. Korea either and hopefully cooler heads will prevail and this is more fear porn. Activist Post has an article from Newsweek in it’s “from around the web” section explaining the missiles are not what they were first claimed to be. Thankfully, it confirms the hype is overblown.
Didn’t know about Gough Whitlam. Summarily dismissed from office, wow. That was 1975, long CIA tentacles. US Congressman Larry McDonald who tried to expose the cabal taking over the US was never seen again when his plane was taken down in 1983 by Soviet jet fighters. An online friend of mine told me his roommate back in that era was told his uncle (CIA) was pulled off McDonald’s plane at the last minute by another CIA officer. McDonald apparently was unwitting to the fact the John Birch Society he had been a president of was being used as controlled opposition by Fred Koch, the father of the notorious billionaire “neocon” Koch brothers. Fred Koch was a close friend of Stalin.
Censorship at Activist Post on a comment praising a Newsweek article cited on Activist Post about N. Korea not being the threat the media made it out to be?
Or maybe it was acknowledging Australian Prime Minister Whitlam’s dismissal from office allegedly in response to C1A pressure in 1975?
Or comparing Whitlam’s fate to US Congressman Larry McDonald who tried to expose the cabal taking over the US?
“Malcolm Turnbull has made it plain that Australia will be involved in any conflict in the event North Korea attacks the United States.”
What would be the reply if it was the other way round? We all know America have ‘framed’ the narrative, accusing NK of threatening when all along it’s been the US making the threats and NK retaliating. NK are allowed to protect themselves, after-all, look what happened to Iraq and Libya when they surrendered their weapons!