War Between U.S. And China Brewing In South China Sea?

By James Holbrooks

Adding fuel to an already highly combustible situation in Southeast Asia, Reuters reported Tuesday that China has “largely completed major construction of military infrastructure on artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea,” and that the Asian superpower “can now deploy combat planes and other military hardware there at any time.”

Citing satellite imagery analyzed by the Asian Maritime Transparency Initiative, part of Washington, D.C.’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, the news agency writes that “work on Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs in the Spratly Islands included naval, air, radar and defensive facilities.”

Sticking to the mainstream narrative that China is an aggressor in claiming sovereign rights to the majority of the South China Sea, Pentagon spokesman Commander Gary Ross says the new images confirm what the U.S. military already knows.

“China’s continued construction in the South China Sea is part of a growing body of evidence that they continue to take unilateral actions which are increasing tensions in the region and are counterproductive to the peaceful resolution of disputes,” he told Reuters.

China, as it has repeatedly, downplayed this notion and stuck to the position that it’s simply erecting defensive infrastructure within its own borders, as would any nation.

“As for China deploying or not deploying necessary territorial defensive facilities on its own territory, this is a matter that is within the scope of Chinese sovereignty,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a press briefing Tuesday.

Despite comments such as these — and the very real fact that China hasn’t actually invaded anyone — the corporate media jumped on the news of the new images.

Forbes, for instance, ran a piece that essentially listed all the reasons why China is a really bad actor in the region, and CNN talked to analysts who explained how the military buildup on the artificial islands will be gradual as China continues to exert its authoritarian influence over neighboring countries.

That’s the narrative. Believe as you will.

But the reality of the situation in the South China Sea — all geopolitical analysis aside — is that there’s about to be a hell of a lot of military hardware in those waters.

As Anti-Media has been reporting, U.S. forces are already in the region, taking part in joint drills with ally South Korea that will last until the end of April. Then, at the beginning of May, Japan — another U.S. ally — will sail its navy’s most powerful warship through the South China Sea on a three-month tour.

That means that just as the joint drills with South Korea end — which, incidentally, units from Delta Force, the Navy SEALS and Army Rangers are taking part in — Japan will shove off a warship aimed at waters claimed by China.

If that timing seems a little curious, also consider that the U.S. just deployed its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system in South Korea, which both China and Russia cared none too much for.

With China showing no signs of backing away from its stance in the South China Sea — both ideologically and physically —  and with the corporate media willing and eager to push the “evil China” narrative that the U.S. military appears hell-bent on capitalizing on, it appears the long-dreaded collision course with China may, indeed, be not far off on the horizon.

Creative Commons / Anti-Media / Report a typo


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22 Comments on "War Between U.S. And China Brewing In South China Sea?"

  1. How do these war narratives fly when the inverse is true with respect to the Pentagon approving the inclusion of Chinese soldiers in Afghanistan to fight ISIS? China sprawling out its military tentacles in Syria on the pretext of going after Chinese Muslim Uighurs joining ISIS there, and now reports Uighurs have joined ISIS in Iraq which could send them there as well.
    Also, Chinese soldiers are fighting alongside Japanese soldiers in Sudan under the banner of the UN Blue Helmets brigades.

    Meanwhile, in the financial sector, Financial Times is reporting China nearly doubled internal investment in western nations (US and Europe) in 2016. Convenient for them CONgress repealed the decades old foreign investor property income tax for 2016. ….This year, NY Times, in its article on The Parachute Generation, reported there are 370,000 high school and college students from China in the US, nearly a ten fold increase from a decade ago.

    War doesn’t make any sense as China as continues to deeply integrate itself with the west.

  2. Stop fighting. Stop killing.

  3. What goes on in the South China Sea is not the business of the US and the US military. The US must stop being the policeman and the welfare check to the world.

  4. The U.S. Government is continually rattled by the fact that it’s once powerful Empire is slowly collapsing in debt owed to China and Russia They can’t pay it back and would rather create a war and burn up the planet with all the people on it rather than accept that they are lying to their Citizens.

    • I rrrrreally think its just more theater for the mases. China already owns much of the usa. Going to own more in the future. Why would they want to fold a winning hand. No I dont think we have to worry. They are all likely on the same page. I would also say putin, Russia as well. keith

      • You’re one of the very few that GETS IT!…most people have had their ‘core beliefs’ perverted in their childhood ‘toilet training….’ to think in terms of ‘offense/ defense logic’…or one imaginary side is polarized against the other …& when confronted with the Truth that there are NO sides!…which is absolutely the orchestrated ‘Con’ of an arbitrary separation/ division idea-construct of Hegelian sorcery by the ruling 0.01% …yet peoples psychological comfort zones betray them as they unconsciously return to the previous erroneous inculcated ‘belief’ of a duplicitous dualism …which is classic ‘cognitive dissonance’ used against the masses by the ‘shadow masters’…like politics…both wings of both parties are on the same ol vulture…& I believe as you do that its all MSM Kabuki theater …the ruling 0.01% of ALL the worlds countries are all joined as One at the pyramid cap… of a draconian top-down totalitarian nightmare run by generational psychopaths….as you probably know…just embellishing for anyone out there that might be ready to WAKE UP!…cheers

  5. “ponerological”…….not come across that one before, but (having looked up the meaning), it IS something that I’ve given a lot of thought to over the years. But a whole bunch of conditioning had/has to be undone before it all becomes clear, or such was my experience, and THAT took many, many years.

    My brain is racing all over the place at the moment as there is so much one could say on the subject, and often it’s not easy to find the words to put it in to. That said, I went for a pee a few minutes ago (with brain racing), and whilst relieving myself, I thought of a song I wrote many years ago (about ’84/85), which sums up some of what I would like to say, so forgive me if I indulge myself. The following is from the first verse (then the second, and so on:

    Is there someone in control
    Pulling all the right strings
    Manipulating the animal fears
    Deadly talons on silent wings……

    When you ran across the fields
    Magic everywhere
    You didn’t know it would end
    You didn’t have a care
    Then they took you in their factory…….

    (there IS a chorus, but I’ll skip that)

    History tells so many stories
    And it’s quit plain to see
    That we must keep struggling onwar
    If we ever want to be free
    Stagnation destroys all life
    And without life there is no hope
    Just an endless tunnel
    Stacked up with booze and dope
    But you can’t shut out the sound
    The echo of marching boots
    You know they’re all around you……

    And as you sit there with your TV
    There’s one thing you can’t ignore
    It’s either us or them
    It’s what all the fighting’s for
    It’s all a question of survival
    And only the strongest do
    And if you hadn’t realised
    I am fighting you
    It’s all been arranged by anonymous men
    In amour-plated pin-striped suits
    Who keep you all tied up
    So you can’t get back to your roots

    (and the last verse – sorry about this – on a more optimistic – and perhaps naive and idealistic – note:

    If only we could stop and think
    How on Earth did we get to here
    The gun is pointed at our heads
    The end is very near
    It really is up to us
    If we really want to live
    The Devil can be destroyed
    With all the love we have to give
    We can set the world alight
    Free ourselves from our roots
    We must sow the new seed
    The sun and rain will nourish our roots

    Anyway, there was a couple of things I wanted to say, one of them a question in fact. If all the elites are on the same page, how does one account for what happened to Saddam Hussein and his regime, and ditto Gaddafi etc, and what’s been happening in Syria? My own conclusion would be that they – the elites, so called – may very well have a lot more in common with each-other (than they do with the rest of us), but they can never completely trust each-other………

    And the other thing was what I came across when I did a search for the meaning of
    ponerological – ie a book entitled ‘Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes’. Check it out on amazon (it’s on the english website anyway……) if you’re not familiar with it already; it looks very interesting, and there are some very interesting and thoughtful reviews.

  6. The last word of the last verse should have read ‘shoots’!

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