The US Is Tightening Its Containment Noose Around China In The First Island Chain, by Andrew Korybko

After Ukraine and Russia, next up on the neocon agenda is Taiwan and China. From Andrew Korybko at korybko.substack.com:

The latest military moves prove that America is preparing to “Pivot (back) to Asia” once the NATO-Russian proxy war in Ukraine inevitably ends, which means that global tensions won’t abate anytime soon as the New Cold War becomes the new normal.

The stage is set for Japan to participate in AUKUS’ Pillar II advanced capability projects (AI, hypersonic weapons, electronic warfare, underwater drones, quantum technologies, and space-tracking radar) after that bloc’s Defense Ministers signaled their interest in this in Monday’s joint statement. It was released ahead of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s trip to DC this week, which he described as occurring at an “historic turning point”, where he’ll also take part in the first-ever trilateral summit with the Philippines.

CNN hyped up the latter event by publishing a piece about how these three are coming together as a result of their shared concerns about China, though the reality is that their military convergence isn’t as motivated by innocent defensive interests as they made it seem. China’s three separate disputes with Japan, its wayward province of Taiwan, and the Philippines have been presented by the West as part of a hegemonic push by the People’s Republic for dominance in the Asia-Pacific.

This perception was then exploited to round up regional allies over the past few years ahead of a seemingly inevitable Sino-US showdown, which explains the recent American-brokered Korean-Japanese rapprochement and the newfound possibility of Japan deploying troops to the Philippines. Kishida’s de facto manifesto that he shared during his December 2022 trip to the US revealed that he’s seeking to take advantage of the NATO-Russian proxy war in Ukraine to restore Japan’s lost sphere of influence.

Continue reading