How New Silk Roads Are Shaping Southwest Asia

The tall buildings of Abu Dhabi. Business people in the United Arab Emirates and other parts of the Middle East are thinking about being part of the Belt and Road scheme. Image: iStock

 

Businesses in the Middle East have begun to think ‘Make trade not war’ and being part of China’s Belt and Road scheme

Singapore, aiming high for the status of Asia’s unofficial capital, seems like the ideal venue for a conference to discuss how the Middle East could learn a few lessons from ASEAN’s multi-layered relations with China, especially involving partnership in the New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

But first, let’s get things straight. The “Middle East” is, of course, a Eurocentric, Orientalist denomination. From Asia’s – and China’s – cultural and geographical point of view, the “Middle East” is correctly seen as Southwest Asia.

China-ASEAN naval drill to focus on code to stop conflict

Most would view this as a strengthening of ties and buildup of trust. While this is correct, it’s only partially. Where this is leading to is an Asian bloc without the United States — an actual abandonment of the West as Asia will come under Beijing’s umbrella of protection.

 

Chinese seamen and their counterparts from ten ASEAN navies take part in a launch ceremony in Zhanjiang on Monday. Photo: Xinhua

 

Symbolic exercise off Guangdong province with ASEAN navies; exercise comes at a time of tension over China’s military buildup on disputed atolls

Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe has hailed the first, week-long naval exercise by China and ASEAN nations, off the city of Zhanjiang in southern Guangdong province, as a milestone showcasing the shared resolve of China and ASEAN states to safeguard regional peace.

More Countries Start Exploring Alternatives to the US World Order

 

There are two countries that more than others show how the Western world order is undergoing a profound change. Japan and Turkey occupy two distinct and diverse geographical areas, yet they share many of the same strategic choices about their future. Their geopolitical trajectory is increasingly drifting away from Washington and moving closer to China, Russia, India and Iran.

Both Japan and Turkey are two important states in the US’s strategy for controlling the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. Both countries have economies that are competitive in comparison to their neighbors, and both often conveniently find themselves allied to countries within Washington’s orbit. Japan has a good relationship with South Korea, and Turkey (until a few years ago) had a privileged relationship with Saudi Arabia and Israel. Keeping in mind that the US aims to prolong and consolidate its regional dominance, Washington has always tried to have excellent relations with these two countries as a way of ensuring its constant presence in regional affairs.

US cannot stop China’s innovation advancements

It would appear that the US is seriously worried about China’s technological advancements. Fearing the loss of the last comparative advantage over the Asian superpower has caused a genuine concern over national defense and competitiveness among America’s ruling elite.

The US using every possible means to curb Asia’s technological rise, including the banning of sales of essential chips to ZTE for seven years, invoking Section 301 of the Trade Act to investigate China’s “unfair trade practices” and barring investment in the information-technology sector. The Donald Trump administration’s target might be the Asian power’s “Made in China 2025”, a strategy meant to make China self-sufficient in an array of technologies.

The 301 investigation was meant to slow down China’s technological advancements by imposing stiff tariffs on a host of Chinese imports and barring the sales of US technology to Chinese firms. In addition, the anti-China faction of the US Congress and the Trump administration have barred Chinese investment in technology sectors.

China Has Bought Brunei’s Silence in South China Sea Dispute

 

China’s takeover of the strategic South China Sea region is ‘steering the world toward war.’

In discussions about the South China Sea dispute, we often hear about China claiming nearly the entire resource-rich, strategic region. And we also often hear about rival claimants—nations such as Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines—who dispute China’s claims. International law says these smaller nations rightfully own the portions of the sea along their coasts, so they often cry foul of Beijing’s claims to their territory.

China has Militarized South China Sea

 

Countries Who Have Lost Islands To China Say There Needs To Be Checks Put In Place To Avoid An Unintended Regional War.

According to the South China Morning Post, the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are clamoring for a more formal “code of conduct” in the South China Sea following a spate of aerial “incidents” that had the potential of triggering an unintended regional war.

China’s Sudden Cooperation with the United States Is Only Temporary

 

There are two reasons for China‘s notably harsher stance against North Korea lately.

As soon as China gets what it wants, it’ll go back to its uncooperative ways.

Although Beijing did order all North Korean businesses in its country to shut down last Thursday (Sept. 28), experts say that the Asian nation didn’t do this in an effort to truly curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions or to help the United States.

Instead, China made these moves for its own near-term benefit. The Red Dragon’s stricter stance, these analysts explain, likely won’t last.

Here are China’s real motives – and when we can expect its cooperation to end…

Theory: China’s Secretly Prepping for War in the South China Sea

Chinese leader Mao Zedong, 1963.

 

Should a U.S.-China war break out in the South China Sea, Beijing will rely on an old Mao-era military tactic in its efforts to vanquish the United States.

The likelihood of such a conflict increases by the day…

That’s because the United States continues to exert its military presence in the trade- and resource-rich South China Sea, despite China’s insistence that nearly the entirety of the valuable maritime region belongs to it. China’s claims, as a matter of fact, clash with those of six other nearby nations, such as Vietnam and Taiwan.

China Sends Warships, Fighter Jets to Intercept U.S. Destroyer in South China Sea

 

Just days before Trump’s meeting with the Chinese president in Hamburg later this week for the G-20 summit, the Trump administration sent a guided-missile destroyer near Triton Island in the South China Sea, Bloomberg reported, a move “which may cause concern ahead of President Donald Trump’s meeting with his Chinese counterpart.”

According to an anonymous official cited by Bloomberg, the U.S. Navy sent the destroyer USS Stethem within 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers) of Triton Island on Sunday, passing through the contested waters on the basis of “innocent passage.”

Russia-Philippines Relations: Defense Agreements But Short Of Military Alliance

Putin with Duterte (Source: Kremlin.ru)

 

On May 23, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. However, Duterte had to suddenly return back to Manila, due to a terrorist attack that hit the southern island of Mindanao. Nevertheless, his ministers signed close to $1 billion worth of business deals with Russian firms.[1] The Philippines and Russia have also signed an Agreement on Defense Cooperation. The defense cooperation will expand “exchanges in terms of training, seminars and best practices between the two countries, with the end to develop relations in the field of military education, including military medicine, military history, sports, and culture as well as experiences in consultation, observer participation in military training exercises, and military port calls.”[2]

Trump’s stealth North Korea move sidelines China, could be game-changer

President Donald Trump and China’s Xi JInping in Florida.

 

Just how the shape of the new global strategic architecture will settle out as the framework for the 21st Century is still open to challenge, but the key dynamic — the initial door to that new world — is now being opened by a deliberately-orchestrated U.S.-North Korea confrontation.

What is emerging beyond this door is an overarching strategic alternative to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) démarche of “One Belt, One Road” dominance of the Eurasian and Indo-Pacific geopolitical space, and an alternative, or balance, to the PRC’s reach into Africa and the Americas.

The confrontation between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean (DPRK) leader Kim Jong-Un is very much just between those two leaders, with the People’s Republic of China somewhat marginalized. Beijing is now fighting to find a path into this equation.

China, Malaysia pledge to narrow differences on South China Sea

The Philippines were yesterday, Malaysia is today. Which nation will next help shift the global order in China’s favor under an often-mentioned Asian bloc? This is only one step for Malaysia, but will prove to be another huge setback for America in Asia in the near future. Military cooperation between the two Asian nations is now in the pipeline.

 

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Premier Li Keqiang attend a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

 

Kuala Lumpur also agrees to buy four Chinese naval vessels as part of Najib Razak’s visit to Beijing

China and Malaysia vowed to deepen cooperation on the ­disputed South China Sea on Tuesday as Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak met Premier Li ­Keqiang in Beijing.

Li called on Malaysia and China to further consolidate their relationship, especially when it came to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as part of China’s efforts to win over member nations of the bloc.

Europe mulls a pivot to ASEAN

Most of EU businesses are ready to increase trade and investment in the ASEAN space over the next five years, with Malaysia and Indonesia to emerge as the most attractive markets. European manufacturers are also pushing for the conclusion of a free trade agreement between the EU and ASEAN to eliminate structural disadvantages. The EU views ASEAN as a viable alternative to China.

The decline in investments flowing from the European Union (EU) member states to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should not deceive. As witnessed by a recent survey, European companies look in prospect more favorably to the Southeast Asian market than to China’s.

Japan to grant patrol boats to Malaysia to counter China

VIENTIANE — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will promise to give Malaysia patrol boats during Wednesday’s leaders summit between Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Laos.

…

The Southeast Asian nation is locked in a territorial dispute with China over waters in the South China Sea. Tokyo and the Malaysian government are negotiating a pact in which Japan will transfer military hardware and provide technical support.

Russia eyes ‘Greater Eurasia’

¹³ The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. ¹⁴ It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” ¹⁵ And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. ¹⁶ The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number.

Revelation 9:13-16

 

President Vladimir Putin’s new vision, which comes ahead of the enlargement plans of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, is expected to unite major Asian states and also mend fences with the European Union

(AT)–The Kremlin outlined an ambitious vision of a new global integration grouping on top of already existing economic and political unions in Eurasia. Yet there is a lack of clarity over how the proposed entity could be reconciled with the existing regional organizations and agreements.

The Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) can become part of a larger integration entity, a “Greater Eurasia,” President Vladimir Putin announced. This Greater Eurasian partnership could also include China, India, Pakistan and Iran, former Soviet states and other interested parties, he said.