Originally published at http://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/04/24/new-cold-war-us-japanese-summit-containing-china-and-reinforcing-hegemony
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America, once again you have turned the Eagleâs head toward the arrows , while the on the seal. the eagle is facing the sprig of peace!
This is getting so tiresome, one nation against another nation and wasting money on wars and attacks âdo humans count anymore? Does the planet count?
What to do. NASA, please get together with peace minded people and create some aliens from outer space who seem to be invincible. Letâs create a big video game in the sky and have all nations join together to fight this supposed alien âenemyâ.
Of course, being that itâs a big sky video gameâno one is injuredâbut we can pretend that itâs real .Thenâmaybe for a while we can have a bit of world peace. Yes, I know this seems very juvenile----but look at how the world is acting now!
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The USA canât stand it that another nation, especially a non Western nation is catching up with it and will eventually surpass it in standard of living and military might. If more poor nations became industrial nations, it would reduce immigration to the other nations.
Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines is a very ruthless leader and the Philippines would be the worldâs biggest troublemaker if it were as powerful as the US or China. 
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Japan will hold a joint military drill with US and French troops in the countryâs southwest next month, the defense minister has announced, as Chinaâs actions in regional waters raise concern. The exercise, running from May 11 to 17, will be the first large-scale exercise in Japan involving ground troops from all three countries.
~https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/24/japan-to-host-first-joint-war-games-with-us-france
Earlier A French nuclear attack submarine recently conducted a patrol in the South China Sea.
Defence Minister Florence Parly tweeted âstriking proof of our French Navyâs capacity to deploy far away and for a long time together with our Australian, American and Japanese strategic partners.â
Defence Minister Parly stressed that France intends to conduct patrols every year in the region. And in the next few weeks, Paris should deploy, as part of its Jeanne dâArc (Joan of Arc) mission, âan amphibious group that should operate as far as Japanâ, said the Defence Ministry.
~https://www.france24.com/en/france/20210212-france-wades-into-the-south-china-sea-with-a-nuclear-attack-submarine
Now, one must ask why is France involved in the Far East? No longer does it have any colonies there. Is the real issue the sea routes?
But France does have interests in Africa and China is a rival competing power for influence in that part of the world. Keep China distracted with tensions in its home territory? Who knows?
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While it may well seem difficult to regulate or differently tax creatively hidden âNegative Externality Costâ dumping schemes, compared to âPositive Externality Profitâ making technology products and financial services â the efforts to expose the existential differences â are worth undertaking by any government worthy of being called âdemocratic socialismâ, rather being exposed as this Empire which it is.
In this vein, Xi Jinpingâs commitment of three years ago to âsocialism with Chinese characteristicsâ, might allow Biden (or more likely Bernie) to counter and raise the ante in committing to âdemocratic socialism with American characteristicsâ.
What the heck, Xi might be willing to take that bet â and call with â âdemocratic socialism with Chinese characteristicsâ.
Wouldnât it be a hoot if instead of just continuing to have dozens of little âfailing countriesâ and proxy post-colonial states being drawn into âforever warsâ â it would be wonderful if the worldâs two leading powers were to agree on a similar government goal and structure â with only some differing âcharacteristicsâ.
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Trevor Noah recently and brilliantly said that our âsystemâ was more of a ârotten apple treeâ than just âbad applesâ!
I say that you âCanât hide an Empire behind a faux democracyâ.
âCanât see the Forest for the Treesâ now translates into
âCanât see the Empire for the Issuesâ
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Hong Kong and China are as different as night and day. In 2019, 1.7 million Hong Kong residents took to the streets to demonstrate for democracy. Then, in municipal elections, three quarters of her voters dealt Beijing backed candidates a crushing defeat. Orwellâs â1984â and âAnimal Farmâ are borrowed thousands of times from its libraries, reflecting an abiding interest in social justice. It all add up âthe more China curtails Kong Kongâs freedoms, the more they are cherished.
In contrast, China has no tradition of respect for rights of any kind, and no ruler has lived a day under democracy. Free speech is denied, the internet censored, dissident journalists and lawyers jailed. Having ruthlessly flayed away Hong Kongâs modest measure of democracy, China now trains its sights on a striving and democratic Taiwan, with threats and covert operations. In recent months, incursion of Chinese jets happened regularly in the Formosa Straits.
Why the imperative to over-turn the proven successes of two free Chinese societies? Can it be that to hold onto power, the Beijing autocrat must maintain the fiction that his system has all the answers? If so, his answers are money and brute force, not human values. Some people harbor hope that China will mellow over time. The reality is, each time an autocrat has to face the inherent instability of his system, he becomes more harsh and intransigent. Unopposed, a bully soon becomes a predator.
Many think the Sword of Damocles was removed at the end of the Cold War: it is still dangling there. Very few notice. It is a widespread illusion that humanity is moving away from the risk of nuclear war: the opposite is true. History shows nations end up getting the war they do not want, and delude themselves into thinking it is not coming.
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