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Beijing’s top diplomat told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a video conference call that Moscow’s concerns about NATO expansion in its own backyard seem legitimate and should be taken seriously, according to a report.
Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, warned Blinken against adopting a Cold-War mentality and said “regional security cannot be guaranteed by strengthening or even expanding military blocs.”
TRENDPOST: Wang’s comments are not surprising given Washington’s war of words with Beijing over several issues ranging from control of the South China Sea, Uyghur detention camps, and Taiwan. (See “CHINA WON’T STOP AT TAIWAN, SO WHERE SHOULD AMERICA DRAW THE LINE?” “CHINA/TAIWAN TENSIONS RISING: WAR ON THE HORIZON?” and “CHINA PUTS CHINA FIRST.”)
Ukraine, Again
The Financial Times, citing a U.S. readout of the call, reported that Blinken mentioned to Wang that “the global security and economic risks posed by further Russian aggression against Ukraine.”
The U.S. urged Beijing to use its influence over Russia to help calm the situation along Ukraine’s eastern border, Reuters reported.
Wang called for both sides to “refrain from doing things that agitate tensions and hype up the crisis.”
Bonnie Glaser of the German Marshall Fund of the U.S. told Reuters that China stands to potentially be a spoiler when it comes to countries trying to threaten Moscow with sanctions.
“It is unlikely that the U.S. can get China on board over Ukraine,” she said. Beijing won’t endorse the use of force, but it is sympathetic with Russian views of NATO.”
She said China is likely to step in and help “mitigate” any impact that sanctions could have on Russia.
TREND FORECAST: America, with the largest military in the world, has not won a war since World War II, and just lost the 20 year Afghan War. Despite spending an estimated $2.3 trillion, it could not defeat some 80,000 Taliban fighters. Therefore, any war talk about the U.S. waging against Russia or China is nothing more than “talk.”
TRENDPOST: Under the agreement between U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush with then-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, NATO would not expand its military presence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Beginning with Bill Clinton and continuing under George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump’s regimes, the U.S. and NATO have violated that agreement, bringing troops and weaponry throughout Eastern Europe to the borders of Russia.
This fact is continually ignored by both American politicians and its mainstream media.
While considered fully appropriate for the U.S. and its allies to stage war games and pour billions of dollars of military aid to countries bordering Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, and other nations it is in conflict with, should any of these nations do the same on U.S. borders, it would be called an “Act of War.”