	Generational Dynamics
	Modern Generational Theory

\| HOME \| WEB LOG \| COUNTRY STUDIES \| COMMENT \| FORUM \|
\| DOWNLOADS \| FOURTH TURNING ARCHIVE \| ABOUT \|

Generational Dynamics Web Log for 30-Aug-2020
30-Aug-20 World View -- South China Sea: Vietnam prepares new lawsuit against China, as China launches missile barrage

Web Log - August, 2020

30-Aug-20 World View -- South China Sea: Vietnam prepares new lawsuit against China, as China launches missile barrage

South China Sea tensions soar after China launches missile barrage

by John J. Xenakis

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

South China Sea tensions soar after China launches missile barrage
Vietnam prepares new arbitration lawsuit against China
The path to war with China

South China Sea tensions soar after China launches missile barrage

U-2 spy plane (Reuters)

U-2 spy plane (Reuters)

China's military launched a barrage of ballistic missiles into the South China Sea on Tuesday, triggering a further escalation of tensions between China and the United States.

China's state media said that they were DF-21D and DF-26 missiles, which China developed specifically to target moving American aircraft carriers, with the ability to adjust their path after launch to follow the moving carrier. According to the Global Times, "China's DF-26 and DF-21D are the world's first ballistic missiles capable of targeting large and medium-sized vessels, earning them the title of 'aircraft carrier killers.'"

The missile launches set off a flurry of statements on both sides.

According to a Pentagon statement:

"Conducting military exercises over disputed territory in the South China Sea is counterproductive to easing tensions and maintaining stability. The PRC's [China's] actions, including missile tests, further destabilize the situation in the South China Sea."

According to Chinese military commentators:

"This is China’s response to the potential risks brought by the increasingly frequent incoming US warplanes and military vessels in the South China Sea. China doesn’t want the neighboring countries to misunderstand Beijing’s goals. ...
The US continues to test China’s bottom line in Taiwan and South China Sea issues, and this pushed China to showcase its military strength to let Washington know that even US aircraft carriers cannot flex their full muscle near China’s coast."

The "incoming US warplanes and military vessels" phrase refers to an American U-2 spy plane sent on Tuesday into an area illegally claimed by China, and a Freedom of Navigation operation (FONO) by the US guided missile destroyer USS Mustin near the Paracel Islands, which are illegally claimed by China.

Laughably, when the FONO operation ended, the Chinese claimed that they had driven the Mustin away:

"The USS Mustin, a US Navy guided missile destroyer, trespassed into the China's territorial waters in the [Paracel] Islands on Thursday, and the [Chinese military] dispatched naval and air forces to track, identify and warn it leave, said Senior Colonel Li Huamin, a spokesperson.
The US ignored the rules of the international law, repeatedly stirred up troubles in the South China Sea, exercised navigational hegemony in the name of "freedom of navigation," seriously undermined China's sovereignty and security interests, and severely sabotaged the international navigation order in the South China Sea, Li said.
China has undisputable sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea and their adjacent waters in the region, and the command troops are always on high alert to resolutely protect national sovereignty and safeguard peace and stability in the region of the South China Sea, Li said."

You know, Dear Reader, writing these articles over the years, I've had to deal with so many trolls, from China, Russia, Iran, Syria, and elsewhere, and after a while one just gets tired of the bullshit. China does not have "indisputable sovereignty" over the islands. They have no sovereignty whatsoever. The US plus everyone in the region is disputing it. Furthermore in July 2016, the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that China had no sovereignty, and that its activities in the South China Sea are illegal.

Furthermore, the Chinese are highly contemptuous of international law as it applies to them, but they demand that everyone else conform.

As I've said in the past, the Chinese are unique in a highly racist way, as I described in my book, "War Between China and Japan." While people in America consider themselves to be ordinary people who were lucky enough to be born in the greatest nation in world history, the Chinese Communists view themselves as the Master Race -- yellow race, black hair, brown eyes, yellow skin -- and the rest of us as barbarians. They see international law as a way to control us, the barbarians. They'll sign an international agreement knowing that they'll violate it at will, because they're the Master Race, and the rest of us are just there to serve the Chinese.

Since completing my book on China and Japan, I've been working on a book on the history of Vietnam. It's clear that nobody has a claim on the South China Sea, but if anyone does, it's Vietnam. Vietnam's Champa Kingdom, in particular, has been guardian of the sea for centuries. The Chinese were never interested in it until Chiang Kai-Shek, an admirer of Adolf Hitler, took an interest in it in 1947, and decided to claim it just as Hitler had claimed Poland. Mao Zedong continued to claim it for Communist China.

The whole claim has always been a hoax, based on one lie after another. One of the biggest lies occurred at a September 25, 2015, press conference on the White House lawn, where Xi Jinping blatantly lied to President Barack Obama, saying that China had no intention to militarize the South China Sea, at a time when China was already moving rapidly to militarize the South China Sea. This was a significant lie about a major military matter, and it shows that the thugs in the Chinese Communist Party are never anything but trolls, even at the top.

So now the Chinese are still claiming "indisputable sovereignty." After a while, one just gets sick and tired of listening to all this crap from the Chinese Communists.

The US retaliated on Wednesday with sanctions, blacklisting 24 Chinese companies and individuals involved in China's illegal construction and military actions in the South China Sea.

Vietnam prepares new arbitration lawsuit against China

The Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) has ten members: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

This association has always worked very hard not to anger China, which means saying very little about China's illegal claims to the South China Sea. In particular, very little is said at their meetings about the 2016 victory by the Philippines at International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in the Hague. The ruling declared China's activities in the South China Sea to be illegal.

However, positions have been hardening this year. The US and Australia have already issued "notes verbales", or formal diplomatic requests, to the United Nations, challenging China's claims to the South China Sea, quoting the 2016 Tribunal ruling. Japan is taking similar steps.

What's new is that several ASEAN states are also losing their fear of angering China, and are issuing their own notes. These include Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Brunei.

In particular, Vietnam has been taking steps to file a new lawsuit with International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to reaffirm the 2016 decision for the Philippines, and provide additional support for Vietnam's own claims. This would be politically explosive.

In July 2016, one day after the Hague Tribunal issued its ruling against China, the Master Race's vice foreign minister Liu Zhenmin said, "It is just a piece of waste paper. You may just chuck it in the bin, leave it on the shelf, or put it in archives." Whether it's China's 1984 agreement on Hong Kong, or China's commitments to the World Trade Organization, or any other agreement, the Chinese are contemptuous of all such agreements, and see their only use as keeping the barbarians (the rest of us) under control.

The path to war with China

China has gotten away with that for decades, as the world kept hoping that China would slowly turn a liberal democracy. Instead, each year it's become more and more criminal.

As I'm working on my book on Vietnam, I have to point out one irony. After the Vietnam war, Vietnam was a hardcore communist country led by a fanatic, Le Duan. When he died in April 1986, the country actually did open up and institute many reforms. It's far from a liberal democracy today, but it has been moving in that direction.

The opposite is true in China. After the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Chinese Communist Party became paranoid, desperate and belligerent, increasingly so every year.

Now the world is turning against China, especially after they seeded hundreds of nations, apparently intentionally, with the Wuhan Coronavirus, while controlling it with China itself. I've often said that Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward, which killed 50 million innocent Chinese for nor reason at all, was the stupidest policy enacted by any nation in the history of the world. But I may have to change that opinion now that China has adopted an even stupider policy with regard to the Wuhan Coronavirus.

So China is becoming increasingly belligerent every year, and the Western nations are becoming increasingly hostile to China every year. This has resulted in tit-for-tat confrontations that have been escalating and will continue to escalate.

These escalating tit-for-tat escalations are exactly the path that always leads to war. There's no way to stop this, given the paranoia and desperation of the Chinese Communist thugs.

This past week, China's military launched four "carrier killer" missiles into the South China Sea, in a "signal" to the United States. That's just the next escalating step. Sooner or later, it will escalate to full scale war.

Sources:

Related Articles:

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the Generational Dynamics World View News thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (30-Aug-2020) Permanent Link
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Donate to Generational Dynamics via PayPal

Web Log Pages

Current Web Log

Generational Dynamics Web Log for 30-Aug-2020 30-Aug-20 World View -- South China Sea: Vietnam prepares new lawsuit against China, as China launches missile barrage

South China Sea tensions soar after China launches missile barrage

Vietnam prepares new arbitration lawsuit against China

The path to war with China

Web Log Pages

Generational Dynamics Web Log for 30-Aug-2020
30-Aug-20 World View -- South China Sea: Vietnam prepares new lawsuit against China, as China launches missile barrage